Not So New Kid in Town

[Jerman51]

Hey everyone. Long time Ford owner, first time Sport Trac. 2004 keeps on runnning minus a few important details. Hopefully can figure things out from folks in this place. Current problem is instrument cluster DOA, after much pounding on dashboard above it (used to work for the old TVs so tried it and it worked awhile). At ths point now where I am ready to try pull the cluster. Not found too many videos with good instructions but maybe one close enough. I'll be searching here next. Thanks for this site!
Jerman51

 

[410Fortune]

Welcome to Ef!!

Does your sport trac cluster look like this?

Pardon Our Interruption...

Pardon Our Interruption...

2004 - 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Instrument Cluster Repair

Is your Explorer Sport Trac instrument cluster having problems with intermittent power or the odometer display? We repair your unit in 1 business day!

circuitboardmedics.com

They are a one year thing and problematic
Usually have to be sent in for repair or replaced with another

Only 04-05 sport tracs use this instrument cluster
They are the first year of the “can bus”
Cluster and not serviceable
You will find them for sale on eBay because they are valuable when working

Some places can repair them, that has been hit or miss for us… they don’t have the ability to fully test them when “repaired”
So sometimes they come back fixed sometime they don’t and you are trying to get money back

As you can see I have been through it with these clusters because we buy broken sport tracs and v8 them

 

[Jerman51]

Welcome to Ef!!

Does your sport trac cluster look like this?

Pardon Our Interruption...

Pardon Our Interruption...

2004 - 2005 Ford Explorer Sport Trac Instrument Cluster Repair

Is your Explorer Sport Trac instrument cluster having problems with intermittent power or the odometer display? We repair your unit in 1 business day!

circuitboardmedics.com

They are a one year thing and problematic
Usually have to be sent in for repair or replaced with another

Only 04-05 sport tracs use this instrument cluster
They are the first year of the “can bus”
Cluster and not serviceable
You will find them for sale on eBay because they are valuable when working

Some places can repair them, that has been hit or miss for us… they don’t have the ability to fully test them when “repaired”
So sometimes they come back fixed sometime they don’t and you are trying to get money back

As you can see I have been through it with these clusters because we buy broken sport tracs and v8 them

Thanks for the welcome. Yes that is my cluster. I've done a fair amount of research on them and that is the going price for the repaired ones I have seen and higher prices for "New" clusters. My potential electronics guy lives a block away so sending it back is a walk down the block.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! If the instrument cluster was working intermittently when banging on it then it sounds like there's a bad connection somewhere. Start with the solder joints. Check the area where the cable plugs into it.

 

[Jerman51]

Banging no longer works and of courses removal is ahead of troubleshooting, which is why I am here.

 

[Mike65]

Welcome.

 

[410Fortune]

Removal is pretty easy! 7mm and 8mm sockets you are gonna remove the knee guard panel and metal panel behind it as well as radio bezel.. then you can remove the instrument cluster bezel that houses the light switches and finally you will be looking right at the cluster
Takes about 15-20 minutes

I’m assuming you checked all fuses already?
I have successfully wired the 05 trac backwards to use an older 2002
Cluster… but I am not able to Make the digital odometer work so it’s not a viable option for many trucks (95% working cluster better then no cluster)

 

[Jerman51]

Sounds simple thanks! Any chance it will be drivable without the cluster in place? I am already using a speedometer app that works great. Just really miss my gas gauge and windows (my dog really misses the windows working!).

 

[410Fortune]

Drivable should be
I never really tried!
This was the first year when the can bus cluster was an end user… part of the actual drivetrain computer
The ones I’ve messed with all got a v8 conversion
You see I get sport tracs when they break and I rebuild them better

 

[Flounder]

Any chance it will be drivable without the cluster in place?

It is! When the speedo in on my 04 cluster went years ago, I pulled it and sent it to a place to be fixed. I drove it in the mean time.

 

[410Fortune]

I wish they weren’t crappy I really like the looks of these clusters and we could put them in our 95-01 02-03 trucks as an upgrade …but they have proven to be problematic
With a raspberry pi and some tuning I bet we could hack that odometer and can bus communications too… can bus clusters are being hacked