Lost Lake

I've had my bad tach for over a year and have never heard anyone say they know what happens to the '06 tachs. I know I can send it to Mr. Wizzard, but someone somewhere has to know what is wrong with these besides Mr. Wizzard!

And does the fix he does stand up over time or is it temporary also?

davidj54

It's most likely the stepper motors Dodge used in the cluster. I doubt that Mr Wizzard uses the same motor so his should hold up as long as the truck lasts. I've not heard of anyone that sent theirs to him complain about them failing.

mud

Mine did that a long time ago and they replaced the whole cluster twice. The first time they fixed the tach but the back lighting was all mest up. fought with them for a while but they finally got it right love when a dealer thinks you don't know what your talking about.

Lost Lake

Stepper motor? Can we buy these and replace them ourselves?
We have guys replacing seat covers, engines, heck I rebuilt that valve body, I would think I could replace a stepper motor....

Lost Lake

It's not the stepper motor on the Dodge according to Mr. Whizard, it's the electronic board itself. So while I'm sure I could buy the right board somewhere, I'll bet the process to re-solder it in is tricky.

I did find a post by Mr. Whizard on the Cummins forum where he explains this and said he will discount his repair $20 if you mention you saw his post. That would make the repair $159, shipping included.

I found gaugerepairman in OK advertising on the web and eBay that he will make the repair and ship the cluster out the same day for $130 plus $20 shipping, plus you have to pay to ship the cluster to him. So Mr. Whizard is a better deal when you price in shipping if he can turn the cluster around quickly... I sent him an email.

Any idea if I can drive the truck with the cluster out?

ChrisJohnson

That's what I want too know also...can the truck be driven with the cluster removed? Mine's a daily driver, and I would be hard pressed to have to share the car with the wife for how long? A week or two? I might just have to live with a wacky tach!

jhenson

Just a guess....but I would say that with the electronics in an open state...i.e. unplugged...especially the gauge cluster...that it will even start much less drive down the road. Seems like there would be a safety factor that the factory would have incorporated into the ecm.

just my .02

ColinP

The tach in my '06 went bad. Cost $228 to replace it with a refurbished unit from Dodge and it came with a warranty. I had to provide the dealer with a VIN and mileage and they sent me a cluster that was ready to install. I was going to install a good used cluster but was advised I may need to reflash the ECM because the sentry key system is tied in with the cluster.