Dash Lights Out? Fixing a Glitchy Gauge Cluster Circuit Board

Let there be (reliable) light!

Today we are attempting to keep our 1995 Ford F150 alive by fixing all the bulbs that are out in the gauge cluster. On a previous video we upgraded our OBS from a non-tach cluster to a tachometer cluster and swapped LED's at the same time. We had several that weren't lighting up or flickered on and off as we went over bumps but I didn't diagnose the issue.

Well fast forward to today and I found an intermittent connection between the circuit board copper traces and the bulb sockets. The quick and dirty fix is to solder the socket directly to the board or the preferred method of soldering a few small wires/twin lead onto the board and the other end to the socket. This will guarantee a solid connection on your bulbs and you can service it. Remember if you swapped to LED and nothing is working to swap them around polarity wise in the sockets - that solves a lot of issues.