My "new to me" 98 loses the speedo and tach every once in awhile and I will be doing the cleaning/grease method tomorrow...

Been meaning to share this.... A month or two ago I was driving over Lookout Pass in Montana in a rain storm = BFE..... and my amp meter took a dive on the way down, meanwhile my tach and speedo were acting up like they had most of the day so I ignored it... well my amp meter WAS working just fine... lost my alternator... had to coast about 5 miles to the first town I came to... I was sooo lucky.... I coulda been out there for hours if not all night should it have quit miles earlier... no cell service and my phone was almost dead because my dumbutt didn't have it charging...

Anyhow... there's my story

 

you are lucky... my stepper motor for my speedo went out on my diesel, I lived with it, then my temp gauge went out... couldn't live with that, went ahead and replaced all stepper motors... a whole $40 and 45 mins later everything works..

Now when you resolve the cluster issues you'll realize when somethings off, its off...!!!

OP, don't just keep smacking the dash and wind up in a situation like Central almost did, clean 'em and grease 'em...

 

. I am planing on swapping my cluster soon I just need to go get on from the junk yard

 

why do you want to swap it?? you may end up with the same problem, just clean the connections and be done with it..

 

I have a dummy cluster otherwise I'd keep it

 

The cluster in my 99 likes to die occasionally while going down the road. Furthest I've made it with a dead cluster was 20 miles before I knocked some sense into it. Had my mechanic clean everything when the dash was out for the heater core, hadn't had a problem since.

 

Been several days since I took it apart cleaned and greased the cluster... no more issues... for now

On my 98 it was actually purty easy.. Dashboards/door panels always scare me.... broken plastic clips always seem to be in the near future...