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Owns A Torsen
Joined: Mon Sep 18th, 2017
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I found out tonight that a 1997 mountaineer cluster is not compatible with a 2000 ranger.
Just now got home. Put my new radio in and since the left button row is blue I figured I'd put the blue dash cluster in.
Looked great! BUTTT where the "door ajar" light on a ranger is sits the "fuel reset" and... as I was driving home I called the wife on the bluetooth. "Hey the radio works great honey... uhhh... the speedometer isn't working... crap and I smell burning wires"
Had to turn around and go back to work (had just left) and put the old cluster in.
So if anyone wants a fried speedo cluster that has pretty blue overlays with some of the indicators in the wrong place.. send postage. Didn't think so.
OK I might be wrong. Besides the fuel reset and the door ajar being inverted it looks like the same cluster. When wired to a ranger it sends door ajar to the top light it just says fuel reset.
I took it apart, the speedo has failed but is not cooked like I thought. Looks like it died of natural causes and I cannot remember if it even worked when I drove it home, I know the shifter was broken and to get it into drive was a trick AND it never hit park.
So where was the smell? I can still smell it a little and I believe it is plastic shavings from grinding on the bezel against the heat sink in the back. It gets less every time I drive it but I still plan on looking behind the new radio tomorrow.
So besides the 2 indicator positions being switched it is the same cluster.
I hope I didn't trigger someone digging in to an electrical manual this was an oversight and coincidence that the failed speedo showed at the same time the smell came.
I do know however that at least in the ABS and door ajar positions you should not use a LED. There is some voltage bleeding through and you can see a faint glow in the dark. My 3rd brake light on my dodge was like that, it always glowed a little was LED.
Dang this green one looks MUCH brighter with the 20 SMD daylight LED's than with the 5 X 5050's that was in it. I transferred them from the blue one back to the green one before I put it back in.
LED's look great in the turn signal holes and battery hole and nothing bleeds through. The brights indicator too. ABS and door ajar? going back to filaments unless someone has a trick.
Here's the green cluster with the 20 SMD daylights:
And here is the radio:
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00 XLT 4WD RCSB 3.GO! Jalapeño
01 XLT 2WD RC Steppie 3.0 auto Silver
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