I have a 2006 ranger XLT 4x4.
The other day as I started out, I saw a wisp of white smoke come out of the dash and the OD override and instrument panel lights stopped working. All the instruments and warning lights work and I can turn the dome light on with the rheostat for the dash lights.
i do not have an owners manual so I went online to see if it was a fuse. My fuse panel is not in the driver's side dash but behind the pass side kick panel and looks nothing like any of the diagrams I have seen. There is no "map" on the cover and the positions are not numbered. Can anyone help? I really don't want to pull and test all the fuses.

 

If smoke came out of the dash than the problem was not the fuse. Something physically burnt up in the dash cluster.

Heres the diagram though... The cluster is #10 and #33

 

Welcome to the forum

2004 and up Rangers have a Smart Junction Box(SJB) located behind passenger kick panel, and that has the fuse box

You can download 2008 owners manual here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/genera...1-models-3747/

If you saw 'smoke' then fuse didn't blow in time, so some damage may have occurred
Unfortunately 2004 and up Rangers also had Micro-Processor controlled instrument clusters which can't be just swapped out, they must be "married" to the vehicle by a Ford Dealer.

But lets not go there YET, lol.

These instrument cluster have a diagnostic Mode, also called test mode or engineering mode
Google: ford instrument cluster diagnostic mode

This might tell you what "blew out" or it might not, but free to try

Fuse #1, 5amp, looks to be the power for instrument lighting, in diagram below

 

Thanks, I think the rheostat went away but I would hope it blew the fuse(s) too. The rheostat felt "gritty" afterwards. But why no OD override?

 

The rheostat for the instrument lights was the culprit. Got a "new" one and all is OK. No fuses were blown. Still don't know why it disabled the OD override though.
While I had it all apart I got a damaged Sportrac guage cluster and changed to the white faces.
Also, somebody had spilled sticky stuff in the vents and I got those freed up.
A very productive day.

 

Good work

Thanks for the update and the FIX

 

...I need to upgrade the radio. 😎