Ok guys I have searched all over and cant seem to find any help so I figured I would ask here. My sons 99 ranger has a burnt line for the left turn signal on the back of the instrument cluster. Ford sells the new printed flex circuit for 109 bucks which is great but how the heck do you remove the old one. I took all the bulbs out but there are some metal clips that hold the circuit board on to the back of the cluster. Also a junk yard has a whole assembly for 74 but mileage is 20k off. Is there a way to advance the mileage to match what is on the truck? Thanks for the help anyone can provide. We are replacing the multifunction switch since Im thinking that has to be what caused the circuit to short out.

 

It's hard to tell from your photo, but are the burns on the same net? If so, you might be able to scrape the coating down to the copper, and replace the burnt section with a 30 gauge wire.

 

Yes its the line for the LF turn signal only. We were replacing the bulbs since there were a couple out after the replacement and going through the checks when I hit the left signal we had smoke coming out from the dash. I have heard of that trick not sure if my soldiering iron would be to hot though. Its just one of the ones from radio shack that you plug in no heat control. Let me know what you think. Thanks for the advice.

 

With the flex circuits, the problem is your soldering iron being too hot, and burning through. If you were changing bulbs before the burn happened, check and make sure the bulb sockets aren't shorted with the bulb plugged in.

Once you have removed the coating over the copper, tin the copper with solder, and tin the 30 gauge wire before soldering the wire to the copper.

Good luck!


Here is a photo I took of the back of the instrument panel on my 1999 Ranger a few years ago: