Small electrical fire (cluster)
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 55
Likes: 1
From: Ponte Vedra, FL
Small electrical fire (cluster)
Hello, All,
I've read a few posts about teh speedometer/odometer not working and there seems like there are a few potential fixes (sodering, replacing cluster, etc.). None of the posts seemed to describe an actual incident, though, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else had experienced this:
Pulling into the Auto parts store (ironically enough), I downshifted from 4th, to 3rd, to 2nd and smelled something awful. The cab filled with some smoke, and I assumed I had burned some serious clutch during one of the downshifts. But when I came back out and started her up, the speedo and odo weren't working, and I did recall that most of the smoke (there was a fair amount of it) seemed to come from the cluster.
I took off the bezel and all but two screws from the cluster panel, but I had to pause the job as the rachet I was using to get at the torx screws was too long to get the upper corner ones (couldn't fit the damned rachet in there). I'll be continuing the job tomorrow, so I just wanted to see if anyone had an idea of where I should be looking once this whole thing is off...
I wouldn't mind upgrading to a cluster with a tach, but the good looking ones on ebay are $$ and the others don't have pics (or any kind of guarantee).
Any insight would be appreciated...
Ed
(92 - 4.9 - 5-spd 4x4)
I've read a few posts about teh speedometer/odometer not working and there seems like there are a few potential fixes (sodering, replacing cluster, etc.). None of the posts seemed to describe an actual incident, though, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else had experienced this:
Pulling into the Auto parts store (ironically enough), I downshifted from 4th, to 3rd, to 2nd and smelled something awful. The cab filled with some smoke, and I assumed I had burned some serious clutch during one of the downshifts. But when I came back out and started her up, the speedo and odo weren't working, and I did recall that most of the smoke (there was a fair amount of it) seemed to come from the cluster.
I took off the bezel and all but two screws from the cluster panel, but I had to pause the job as the rachet I was using to get at the torx screws was too long to get the upper corner ones (couldn't fit the damned rachet in there). I'll be continuing the job tomorrow, so I just wanted to see if anyone had an idea of where I should be looking once this whole thing is off...
I wouldn't mind upgrading to a cluster with a tach, but the good looking ones on ebay are $$ and the others don't have pics (or any kind of guarantee).
Any insight would be appreciated...
Ed
(92 - 4.9 - 5-spd 4x4)
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 55
Likes: 1
From: Ponte Vedra, FL
Well, I thought I'd follow up. The spot of the fire was pretty easy to locate once the cluster was disassembled:
My philosophy is generally that the time to replace is the best time to upgrade, so I am thinking about installing a tach. It will cost $80 and take a week to get, though, when I can replace the speedo for only $40 today. I figure that if I am not going to upgrade to a tach, I am at least going to replace these dash lights with some blue ones a la this thread:
https://www.f150forum.com/f10/finish...s-today-40106/
The guy at O'Reilly said the lights were 194's (the Sylvania PN I think) and that they had four packs in stock (2 per pack). The dash takes five and I believe there are 2 more in the climate controls. I'll prob pick up an extra few in case the map lights are the same size...
My philosophy is generally that the time to replace is the best time to upgrade, so I am thinking about installing a tach. It will cost $80 and take a week to get, though, when I can replace the speedo for only $40 today. I figure that if I am not going to upgrade to a tach, I am at least going to replace these dash lights with some blue ones a la this thread:
https://www.f150forum.com/f10/finish...s-today-40106/
The guy at O'Reilly said the lights were 194's (the Sylvania PN I think) and that they had four packs in stock (2 per pack). The dash takes five and I believe there are 2 more in the climate controls. I'll prob pick up an extra few in case the map lights are the same size...
