I replaced all 5 lights in the instrument cluster earlier this year and until last week, my cluster was good and visible. A few days before one light bulb went out, just that one was much brighter than all the others. i thought nothing of it until it went out. Is that possibly an electrical problem or just a one time thing?

 

Haynes Manual actually has the electrical diagram for the instrument cluster illumination set out nicely (toward the end of the manual) for 95+ Rangers.

If you think that there is a problem with the circuit (as opposed to simply a bad bulb), then here's how I'd approach it:

There are two wires that provide power to the instrument cluster lights, both are either Light Brown w/Red Stripe LB/R (according to Ford Manual) OR Red w/Black Stripe R/BK (according to Haynes). There are also two corresponding ground wires (Solid Black).

It looks like there are six lights total in the cluster, and that each Power/Ground combo illuminates a set of 3 lights. So maybe it's possible to isolate which Power/Ground combo is associated with the set of lights that contains the bad bulb in order to see if there is something wrong with that part of the circuit (chafed wire, broken connector, etc.) If it checks out OK, then I believe that would leave only the circuit board itself on the back of the cluster as the cause of the problem (again, assuming that it's not just a bad bulb).

HTH

 

thanks for the advice, ill ride out until another bulb goes brigghter or goes out, then i think ill take a look at the haynes manual i own for it. appreciate it rockledge!