1999 Ford Ranger Speedometer Problem

[turbo15479]

This will be somewhat lengthy so please bear with me. My son's Father in Law died and I bought his 1999 Ford Ranger that looks like new. It had 119,400 miles on it but the speedometer was not working. Previous to me buying it he had taken it to the Ford garage where he bought it. and $4,100.00 later and still no working speedometer.That price is not a misprint. Ford changed the speed sensor, rear end with a salvage yard rear end, wiring harness from speed sensor to dash, and another harness I cannot make out what it is. Anyway I still changed the speed sensor on the rear end but it did not fix the problem. So as I was driving I hit the gauge cluster with my hand and the speedometer worked intermittently. So I pulled the cluster and took it to a local shop that rebuilds gauge clusters. His opinion was the area where the wiring harness plugged in was not making good contact and he suggested I buy a gauge cluster at a salvage yard. I did and transferred my gauges and speedometer into the new/used gauge body. It would glitch once maybe every 50 miles but would start working immediately again. The truck now has 122,529 miles on it but the speedometer now glitches often and longer and sometimes I will get the hard shift because of no signal. So even though I thought this would not fix it I again tried a new/used gauge cluster from a salvage yard. I have tried it with both the original speedometer and both salvage yard speedometers with the same result, not working properly. So again even though I thought this was not the problem I changed the speed senor on the rear end with the Ford sensor the Ford garage installed but it did not help. The one I had installed was a NAPA brand. I looked closely at the harness plugs and they look fine. About the only thing I have not changed is the GEM module. Do these Rangers have a problem with the speedometer head acting this way? But then it would mean I have 3 speedometer heads that do the same thing. As stated 1999 Ford Ranger, extended cab, 4 wheel drive. So any help or ideas are welcome. I probably could buy a GEM module at a salvage yard but I do not want to throw parts at a problem when I am not sure what the problem is. I am a pretty good mechanic and have a high end Autel scanner that will give a health report plus allow me to manipulate different system but I don't think I saw a test for the speedometer on it. Bruce

 

[Josh B]

I didn't read it all, but they owe you an original rear Diff, they should never have taken it as granted for them to swap your original, they owe you the original or a new identical replacement.
I would recommend replacing it yourself