Instrument cluster

[rhforeal]

2000 Ford Ranger XLT 2 door 6 cylinder 3 Liter, 206,000 miles. gauges in cluster not working, speedometer and odometer not working. no 11 fuse blown. I do recall the odometer sticking intermittently before everything stopped working. I see posts online about a circuit board that plugs into the cluster being a cause of gauges going out but since the odometer and speedometer are also not working, are there two things going on or can the speedometer odometer fault cause all of it. I have no schematic. How can I trouble shoot this?

 

[franklin2]

Unplug the cluster. Then put a new fuse in #11. If it doesn't blow, but does blow when you plug the cluster back in, at least you know it's the cluster.

Here's a schematic of fuse 11 in the underdash fuse box. It goes several places.

 

[rhforeal]

Man that is awesome. Thanks for sending. I will keep the you and this thread apprised of what I find.

 

[MotorBoater]

Just swapped my cluster for one with a tach, the original on the dash I’ll have no use for. If you end up needing new cluster it’s yours

 

[Josh B]

Cool looking cluster

 

[rhforeal]

Just swapped my cluster for one with a tach, the original on the dash I’ll have no use for. If you end up needing new cluster it’s yours

Yep the fuse doesn't blow when cluster is out. If it's still up for grabs I'll take it. rhforeal@gmail.com

 

[rhforeal]

So the latest on the gauge cluster and slosh module is the no. 11 fuse blows without the slosh module. I measured the resistors and diodes on the gauge cluster and found two good diodes [ measured .5 one way and infinite with leads swapped] and one diode , the Zener diode (The symbol next to the diode is a Zener symbol) below the slosh module shorted. It reads .2 with the multimeter leads on either polarity on the diode setting. I also tested it on resistance setting. The result was 300 ohms either polarity. I believe It should be .2 with black on the band (cathode) side and red on the opposite (anode) side and a high resistance with opposite polarity. I'm assuming it is shorted for now. More later.

 

[franklin2]

It depends on the value of the zener diode. You are checking everything correctly, but a Zener diode is special, it acts like a regular diode until you hit a certain voltage threshold, and then it will conduct both ways.

I am not sure what voltage your meter uses on the diode check. But if the voltage it uses happens to be higher than the zener breakover, then it will show conducting both ways. Of course your meter has a 9v battery in it, so the diode tester can't have over 9 v on it. You could take another meter and put it on your meter leads in diode checker mode and see what voltage the other meter reads.

The zener may be a 5v model, if they are using it to regulate the voltage to some computer circuits in there.

 

[Josh B]

Dang! I thought we spoke english here
I went to a weekend getaway from my sad life as a diesel mechanic, actually just drove them around and changed the oil or maybe replaced the wheel bearings, installed a trip meter.
One lonesome weekend I went to a test for post office work of some sort, primary knowledge needed was electrical, in addition to conveyor systems etc etc.
It was a two day exam and since I fared well in other exams of the sort, such as the Air Force exam, who were going to put me in electrical, so I went just for kicks. V.N. had done been closed anyway

I made an 80 on that 2 day exam, but didn;t stand a chance anyway. the ones with previous exp or government, military, etc extra points won all positions

Sorry about your dash, maybe in another go round

 

[rhforeal]

Congrats on your test results. I think that means You're needed somewhere else like where people actually get things done. Hey thanks for the insight on Zener diodes. I'm going to talk to Ford (at the parts counter) They have given me good info before. Why is there such a mystery around gauge cluster and anti slosh module problems that have been on ford vehicles for years? All I need is a detailed schematic of both and I can fix it. Not tape it or swap it. I'm still on this. More later.

 

[franklin2]

Congrats on your test results. I think that means You're needed somewhere else like where people actually get things done. Hey thanks for the insight on Zener diodes. I'm going to talk to Ford (at the parts counter) They have given me good info before. Why is there such a mystery around gauge cluster and anti slosh module problems that have been on ford vehicles for years? All I need is a detailed schematic of both and I can fix it. Not tape it or swap it. I'm still on this. More later.

No one fixes anything anymore, we are a throw away society. To me fixing something and keeping it out of the landfill is the purist form of recycling.

By the way, why are you driving around that 23 year old vehicle? It should have been scrapped a long time ago and you should be making payments on a new one. Once you work on these things some, you can see they were designed not to last forever on purpose.

 

[rhforeal]

lol , YES I still have it. Just need it till I buy something else. I've never had a car payment all my life. I pay cash after saving up every eight or ten years. I learned that from the financial peace class I took at church. I work on my own vehicle and do like solving puzzles and this one doesn't seem expensive to solve. As far as throw away society, you are right. Smart watches are moving into that realm also. The functions draw a lot of power so they have to be rechargeable rather than lasting 2 years like previous watches. They are glued shut to preserve waterproof integrity so changing batterie's is not an option. Since they become harder to keep charged over time, they become disposable. The Ranger drives great because I take care of it, but because of the dash problem and dwindling parts , I'm like a bush pilot now, calculating fuel usage for every mile, weather, crosswind, terrain and mountain to keep from running out of gas. It will be scrapped some day but not today.

 

[rhforeal]

Here is the resolution I found for the problem described above. The Zener diode near the circuit traces for the anti slosh module was confirmed good thanks to the weigh advice by Josh B above. A ground wire was added from the neg battery post to to the frame near the radiator. All of the copper traces on the circuit plastic of the gauge module were cleaned with eraser and then alcohol wipe after removing the bulbs, connectors and anti-slosh module. There were no intermittent traces. The anti-slosh module was replaced with a purchased one on eBay for 28.00. It was identical to my original module having four sled traces on either side of the plastic lock. I did not have a schematic for this module. I could not find one anywhere on line to help in testing it so I did not test it. Since my ranger is a daily driver to work I just threw it in place on the cluster, reinstalled the bulbs, reinstalled the cluster. Turned the key over and checked all the fuses. Fuses all good. fired the truck up and all gauges and lights jumped to life. The fuel gauge was stuck at half on the old slosh module and now it was at 3/4 tank. I decided to drive to Costco and put in what gas it would take. It took 8 gallons and gauge went to full. I have driven 40 miles since then and it has backed off of full slightly. I will keep tabs of miles driven and try to get the gauge as low as my calculations will allow to confirm the gauge is accurate.

 

[rhforeal]

I forgot to mention that the connector under the drivers seat was cleaned also.