Hey guys,

I recently had the tach go out in the Ranger and decided to look for a replacement on line. I found a very nice used Sport Trac cluster on Ebay with the white faces and gray trim (very nice). The layout was exactly like the current one in the Ranger as well as the plugs on the back so I went ahead and ordered it (the price was great).
I removed the non working tach cluster form the Ranger and plugged this new one in and everything worked and I was surprised, tach was reading, all gauges were reading and all the warning lights came up and went off once started. I looked it over closely and realised that the check engine and door ajar lights were located differently on the new gauge (no big deal I guess) and they didn't illuminate. My question is, can I move those said light wires from the plugs with their pins and relocate so they will work as supposed? Don't care much about the door ajar but the check engine one would be good. Let me know what you guys have done or think can be done for this installation.

Cheers

 

Ford used a Pink/light green stripe wire for the CEL/MIL(check engine light) for many years, it runs from Pin #2 on the computer(PCM) to the instrument cluster, it is a Ground for the CEL bulb, computer grounds this wire to turn on the bulb.
Most warning lights operate this way, by grounding, just FYI

Door Ajar uses a Black/orange stripe wire, it runs to GEM, pin #9

If neither light comes on then they are not "reversed", they are not hooked up
When you turn on the key there is a "bulb test" that grounds all the bulbs for a second or two

 

Hi RonD and thanks for the reply.
Yes I am aware of the grounding operation but I would think that it did that in the PCM only to activate the light in the cluster so the wires leading to the cluster would just be the activation end which is power. I found those pins on a diagram but was just wondering if it was possible to switch them around without any problems or if anyone has did it .

Thanks again

 

What I need now is a cluster pinout diagram of the 2001-03 Sport Trac so I can compare and determine what l need to swap.

 

Here is a 2002 Sport Trac instrument diagram

 

Thank you very much, will have a look.

 

Hey,

so I located the wire pins I needed to swap which is for the location of the check engine light and door ajar light that were in different locations in the newer cluster and all lights are working now and operate as they should.

 

Good work