Electrical troubleshooting advice is needed for my 1993 Ford Explorer XLT.

[dogs of war]

hello fellow ford owners out there, i have several issues concerning my 1993 ford explorer xlt and need all the advice i can get. first thing is i dont have dash lights and have checked all the fuses and they are all good, whats the chances that the headlight switch could still be bad, even though when i turn it my over head lights seem to work? i have also noticed that all my gauges in the dash are not working, such as gas, battery, water temp ect, what could be sum of the problems that are related to this? i have owned several fords in the past, but i have never seen so much stuff wrong with one quite like this before, its my first explorer i have ever bought, but hey got it cheap so cant complain any help would be greatly appreciated thanks. UPDATE i have called around to a few shops and alot of them are telling me its the cluster that has gone out, is this common in ford explorers? any advice would be greatly appreciated since knowone has posted any previous replies to any of my past post on any other sites i have tried to use

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've renamed your thread, and moved it into the stock 91-94 section.

 

[Verno]

Dogs, this is first I've heard of entire assembly not working. I would first think that there is a connector off. If everything is connected, then probably is the cluster.
Welcome to the Forum

 

[FIND]

There is always the possibility that your headlight switch is bad, but given your other issues, you should check your ignition switch, if that is good, check your cluster.

 

[FIND]

I just sent you this in a PM, but....

The headlight switch could be bad, which would cause your lighting issues, however, given the fact that you have additional issues on top of that, I would ignore the switch at the moment until the other issues are addressed, since it is very likely they are related.

There are a few possibilities here:
Check all your fuses, just in case then:

The reason your speedo still works is because it is cable driven.

Therefore, First thing to check would be the wiring to your cluster. You may have some bad wiring, a loose connector, or a bad ground.

second, if the other test doesnt pan out, test for power coming from the harness. If there is no power coming from the harness, then there is a possibility you have a bad ignition switch.

Third, If you have power, and the wiring is good, then you have a bad cluster. Many times you will see evidence of it on the circuit board on the back, such as a burnt diode or circuit board.

I hope this helps you troubleshoot a little further. If I can remember where to find a wiring diagram for the harness to the cluster, I will be sure to forward that on to you.

Now, when you get everything else working, if your lights on your cluster still do not work, then you may have a bad headlight switch as well.