I drive a 99 ranger, The speedometer recently stopped working correctly. The indicator is usually on 0 but will randomly start bouncing before returning to 0. The ABS light is on but no check engine light, at night the backlight for the speedometer still works. Any ideas on what the problem might be? Thank you all very much, this forum has helped me a ton!

 

Welcome to the forum

In 1999 Rangers used the Rear Axle ABS speed sensor(VSS) to run speedometer

So with ABS light on and no speedometer I would change the VSS sensor first, or at least unplug it and check that wiring is good and then pull sensor out and check that its not visibly damaged.

If you have a manual trans then computer may not set a "speed" code if there is no signal from VSS
If automatic then yes, it should set a P0500 code, and transmission should be shifting hard, not smoothly

The VSS signal goes directly to ABS module, the VSS wires are spliced and the signal is also sent to GEM module behind the radio, the GEM corrects the VSS pulses to "true speed", 8,000PPM, and then sends corrected pulses out to speedometer and computer, also cruise control.

If ABS light was not on then I would suspect GEM problem or GEM wiring, but since you have ABS light I would start at the source, the VSS on rear axle.