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I was hijacking another members thread, so I thought I'd better start my own. A few months ago, my cluster started shutting down, everything would die except the cluster lighting. The radio and windows would also quit. It happens mostly at startup, but can happen driving down the road.
The obvious answer is the cluster is acting up, the battery saver or something in it...except... occasionally, the engine will lose power and start missing, and one time the transmission starting acting up... it seemed pressured right up like it wasn't getting any power, the engine was laboring, and as soon as the cluster started working again, it normalized. The gauges don't sweep, they just come back on. I have seen the speedometer jump up 40km on a couple of occasions. It's always acted up in cold weather, but it wasn't cold, and it's never done that particular thing before. And the brake light comes on just as the cluster is dying.
Is there any connection between the cluster being bad, and experiencing these engine and transmission systems? I'm all fired up and ready to send the POS cluster to circutboardmedics and have them get after it, but I'm concerned maybe it's not my problem? Voltage doesn't drop when it happens, batteries are only a year old, everything else is normal, truck starts and runs great.
I hate electrical problems.
Thanks for the reply Sean. As I mentioned in the hijacked thread, wiggling the wiring harness under the power distribution box seemed to make it work again, but I wiggled it for an hour on and off yesterday, and nothing happened, so I chalked it up to coincidence.
Not even sure what diagrams I would need, this electrical stuff is out of my comfort zone.
What do you mean by "the cluster is remote and sits on the network"? Sorry I'm so dim when it comes to this stuff.
Given the intermittent nature of the problem, I'd start with the cluster if you can stand the truck being down for a few days. I've seen enough posts from both of the possible repair companies here to think they could test it for you for a reasonable bench charge and be honest enough to tell you it was ok. Hopefully it WILL have an issue and bingo! the truck is fixed but if not you could at least be confident it wasn't the cluster. That's worth a few bucks in my opinion, especially if you don't like working electrical issues.
Your right, I'm just going to send it away. The speedo screwing up in cold weather is reason enough. I'll just wait until I don't need it in a week or so. It's my only stock trailer pulling truck, and I've got a few critters that need to be moved around yet.
Frikken accountants at Ford must be the reason they put junk parts in a $60,000 truck
When my cluster was bad The truck and trans would not work right if I shut the truck off while the gages where acting up. As soon as I started it back up the tranny acted like it was in the wrong gear, like starting out in third gear and the engine had about half power and missed and sputtered. I sent the IC to CBM and all is fine now.
Thank you bobv60, that's what I wanted to hear. Never thought about shutting it off when the cluster was acting up... that would explain why it didn't do it all the time. And I had exactly the same symptoms as you, it felt like the trans was in 2 gears at once or something, very rough engagements, I didn't even attempt to drive it like that. Cluster will be heading out in a few days.
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occasionally, the engine will lose power and start missing, and one time the transmission starting acting up... it seemed pressured right up like it wasn't getting any power, the engine was laboring, and as soon as the cluster started working again, it normalized. The gauges don't sweep, they just come back on. I have seen the speedometer jump up 40km on a couple of occasions. It's always acted up in cold weather, but it wasn't cold, and it's never done that particular thing before. And the brake light comes on just as the cluster is dying. 
