I just recently, this past Saturday, got around to replacing a couple of burned out lamps, one in my instrument cluster and one on my heater fan control panel.
I disconnected the battery, both terminals, let the truck sit while a ate lunch and went back and began the process of removing all the stuff I needed to get at the cluster. The biggest pain I guess was removing the headlight switch and the connectors on the back of the switch but that's another story.

I figured while I had the cluster out, I would replace all 5 lamps because the way my luck runs, another one would burn out as soon as turned on the lights!
I replaced all of them and put the dash back together and all was well. This morning, I went to the bank and my odometer was not working. The speedometer, tach and guages all worked but not the odometer or trip meter. Mine is analog by the way!

On the way back, it started working.

Now my question. Is the odometer not working and then start back have to do with the truck sitting for 24 hours with no power to the system at all? Reason I ask this is that my check engine light went off after this, as expected, but hasn't come back on yet. I haven't bothered to pull a code because the truck runs well.

All the connectors on the cluster came off well and went back in well, so this puzzles me as to why the odometer didn't work but started back after a 10 mile run to town and back.

Any ideas?

 

The disappearing odometer is caused when the solder joints around the pin connectors fail. Chances are that unplugging and reinstalling the cluster was enough to jar it loose.

 

Is that true for an odometer that's analog? My truck doesn't have a digital readout although it is electronic.

But as my luck runs, there is another bulb that's out at the top of my speedometer. It appears to be smaller in size due to the receptacle it's in.

I'll save that one for warmer day..

Thanks Sheets!

 

Did you get the cable plugged in all the way? Could be that the cable itself was not in all the way in the speedo/odometer gear drive. After driving it the cable end might have slid into the notch that actually drives the odometer. Did the speedo needle jump around while driving?

 

I replaced my bulbs the same as you a while back. There was one that I could not get to. It had dust on it that I wish I wiped off because it's dimmer.
Anyway, my od works ok but my trip indicator locks up sometimes. I just left it.
Can't complane though, after 326000 miles what do I expect.

 

There is no cable driving the speedometer/odometer. There are three electrical connectors that plug into the back of the cluster.

The speedometer worked fine but the odometer did not until I got back home.

All other Ford turcks I have seen, even the 93 F150 I drove back in the late 90s, had digital odometer/trip meters. That's why I was surprised when I bought this truck(2001) that it had a regular analog "wheels" that showed the mileage. But it's electric as there is no cable.

 

Sheetsd66 is on the right track. Loose solder pins on the cluster.