My buddy has a 2008 6.4 f350. Occasionally all the gauges quit and sit at zero, all the dash lights come on and then go out, the stereo also attenuates. Cruise control also will not function unless the key is cycled. The truck seems to run fine when this happens. Banging the dash or kicking it by the emergency brake seems to bring the gauges back to life. I am sure i read the fix for this before but i can not for the life of me find it. He has has taken it into the dealer but they can not figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds potentially like a loose/flakey power connection somewhere. Not sure if you can reach up to the instrument cluster and try to reseat its connector??