It's quite understandable to have some issues with my 04 at 326k miles - my speedometer reads high, low, or nothing at all or stuck at 140+ mph. Did some digging around and disconnecting the negative terminal did reset the gauge. Once. Issue still persists and from some brief research, I think it's the stepper motor. One option is to find a stepper motor, or a donor cluster, take both apart and solder the new one in. I don't have a soldering iron though.

Another option is to send it out to be rebuilt, which I have found costs about $300 and there will be some turnaround time. Unfortunately, the F-150 is my only vehicle, so I'd like to avoid downtime as much as possible. I'm currently getting away with using the speed readout on the GPS unit in the dash that the previous owner installed before I bought the vehicle years ago (which works so long as it's behaving properly. So, at least about 95% of the time I'm driving, I know how fast I'm going).

The latter option seems to be more attractive - more certain that it'll be done correctly so I can swap it back in. Any recommendations on a place in the Phoenix/AZ area that could do it reliably, for a quick turnaround? Otherwise, I'm happy to be convinced that I should try my luck and pick up a cheap a soldering iron.

 

What model F150? The heritage or the new body style?

 

New body style.

I did a bit of Googling (guess I should have used those search terms to begin with), and found out a couple of things:
-a YT video from Automotive Circuit Solutions (one of the places I was thinking about eventually shipping out my cluster) shows the process of disassembling the cluster, desoldering the stepper motor, repairing it with subcomponents of another stepper motor and reassembly. Doesn't look too terrible, but I'd need to pick up a soldering iron.
-There's also a shop somewhat nearby (45 min) that might be able to do it as well. I've reached out for a quote.

 

The person I reached out to for a quote offered a price of $175 to diag, $200 to replace the motor... Quick turnaround on a quote, but I'm probably just going to go the route of buying a new stepper motor, soldering iron, solder and wick. Wish me luck.

 

Too bad you can't have any down time.

https://www.autotechrescue.com/produ...-light-repair/

 

Yeah, if I managed to pick up a commuter car, the truck could virtually sit indefinitely, but the used car market has been utter BS the past couple of years.

At this point, I think I'm comfortable trying to solder and do the whole job for hopefully less than $50.

 

I took the cluster out the other day and swapped the new internal components back into the stepper motor and soldered it in today. Haven't reinstalled the cluster yet, so I have yet to see if it works.

The needles for the fuel and temp gauges came apart as I was removing them and the little plastic flanges used to keep them together broke off. I have them put back together with some plastic cement currently drying. Going to see if that holds well enough. If not, anyone have a good source for the needles? I see some on ebay/amazon that may or may not work. Will just need 2.

 

How about going to a junk yard and getting a cluster? Then this way you got spares.

 

Not a terrible idea.

Plastic cement seemed to work just fine. I actually just threw the entire cluster back together, installed it in the truck and took it for a test drive. And holy crap, it worked. Speedometer sync'd perfectly with speed readout on GPS system. Oil pressure and Battery voltage gauges read a bit high, but that's a simple matter of readjusting the needles.