No blue Highbeam Dash Indicator.

Hello. I have a 1996 Ford Ranger. The low and high beams work good but the high beam blue dash light doesn't come on when you switch to high beams. I suspect the bulb for it is burnt. Before i go ripping the instruments out which i gather is a huge job. Is it possible something else could cause this?

And i wanted to ask another question if i may. The 5 speed tranny on this seems to grind into and out of gears at various speeds even with flawless shifting. For example if you try to go from 1st to 2nd at anything over 3000rpm. It also grinds if you try downshit (revmatch) going from 4th to 3rd and 3rd to second if your RPM is to high.

I suspect the Synchros are going. Could a weak pressure plate on a original clutch make it do this also because of slugish engagement? Or could it possible be a clutch master/slave cylinder being sluggish. It has 275,000k's on it and pretty sure it's the original clutch.

I imagine the bulb is out on the high beam indicator, If you've got the original clutch in a truck with that many miles I'm sure You need a clutch pressure plate and throw out bearing and on thiis model you would want to replace the clutch master and slave cylinder when the rest is replaced because the tranmission has to be pulled to get to the slave cylinder. you'll also want new fluid in the transmission when all this gets done

pulliing the cluster isn't that hard of a job. It take me about 30 minutes to pull the cluster out but I've done it a couple of times. I'd figure on about 2 hours total if its your first time. Also have you tried bleeding the slave cylinder of the clutch this may help. Does the it have a tough time going first or into reverse when sitting still? if so I'd think it's a master or slave issue so try bleeding it first.

If you are going to pull the cluster out to replace the high beam indicator light, you might as well replace all the other indicator lights while you're at it. Save you from earing things apart again once another indicator light goes out.

You need a new clutch job.