92 Ranger Instruments cluster dead

[malbona]

Last night, the dash lights died. I picked up some fuses and went to replace the faulty one. I couldn't find any blown. Then I noticed that the gauges on the instrument cluster don't work except for the speedometer which is cable driven. The truck runs fine, everything works, just no gauges or dash lights. I checked the fuses under the hood near the battery, they all are good. I took the dash and steering column apart looking for a pinched wire or something shortng out. Nothing there. I just bought this truck and no nothing about it. When they worked, the dash lights were set to pretty dim and I turned the switch to brighten them. I also used the dimmer switch for the headlights around the time of failure. Does anyone have an idea what is wrong? Thanks.

[malbona]

After some thought and it appears everyone is as stumped as I am, I am thinking that the ignition switch is going bad. The radio used to cut off with the switch and now stays on. Everything I am having problems with is related to the ignition switch, I am pretty sure.

[toddler62]

All you can do is work backwards, Your not getting power or your not grounding properly, it could be in the switch it should send power to the dash area

[malbona]

Thanks for your input toddler62. I now think it's a short and not the switch. Last night I discovered that my tail lights don't work too. A friendly police officer pointed it out to me. Luckily, I only got a warning and was ordered to use my flashers at night until I get it fixed. Brake lights and turn signals work though. I noticed everything died when I used my high beam/low beam switch. I wonder if the problem is in there and am tempted to pick up another at the local salvage yard just to see.

[toddler62]

try turning on the things that dont work. get someone to help watch the dash or taillights. then start wiggling wires at the steering column,turn signal switch, under the dash, inside the engine compartment. could be a rusty ground, loose plug, a wire broke in two inside the plastic. You might get lucky and find the problem doing this. It was nice of that police officer to point the tail light problem out for you

[malbona]

Well, I gave up and took it to a shop. The dash lights were out due to a faulty headlight switch. The gauges died because of a short. The oil level sensor wire had a bare spot in the wiring and was grounding out against the frame causing the gauges not to work. It didn't blow a fuse, I don't know how, but it didn't. Weird things like that happen to me...