2002 F150 4x4

Hello, I have a 2002 f150 4x4 with only 64 thousand miles... My speedometer and tachometer work intermittently. I also had the problem with the odometer not lighting up. I soldered the odometer points and that works fine now. However the Speedo and tachometer still only work intermittently. I know that if I put a used one in I will need to have it flashed or truck won't start, also I would like for the mileage to be correct. A new is going to cost me about 1000 dollars for the new cluster with correct mileage and flashed. What else could I possibly try with the one I have? Are there any specific points that I could resolder to get these to work as the odometer did? Please help!

P.S. my truck starts fine and shifts normally whether speedometer and tachometer are working or not.

03f15012

Go to a yard and pick up another one. if it's the kicker motors themselves, you can swap the boards on the backs of them with ease. all the mileage and PATS are stored on the boards, so that's one quick and cheap way to see if it's the motors.

2002 F150 4x4

03F15012...
I know this sounds dumb, but what are the kicker motors? And what exactly would I need to swap out?

03f15012

lol, it's fine. Kicker motors are the motors that move the needles. All you'd have to swap are the boards. When you remove the cluster, you'll see a white cover on the back of it held on by 7 Allen head screws.

Remove those, and take the cover off. That is the board. Unplug the single plug on the back, and it just pulls off. Put it on the new gauge cluster, and simply reinstall. I just did that recently, and proved that you can do that safely. A couple gauges are slightly off though... Might be the new gauge cluster, or that I had an afternarket face on.

2002 F150 4x4

On thank you so much, I will give it a try and let ya know how it went.

2002 F150 4x4

I'm about to go pick up a used instrument cluster but I had one question about what you mentioned yesterday... When I switch the boards will my odometer have the correct reading on it?

03f15012

Yep. All PATS and mileage info is stored on the board you remove. I can confirm this when I swapped my clusters from my old to new truck this past Saturday.

2002 F150 4x4

I picked up a used instrument cluster and did what you said, then drove it for about an hour, everything worked great, then went home, got back in truck a few hours later and 5 minutes into my drive both speedometer and tachometer stopped working again! At a loss now.