No, I haven't, but that is because I am very selective when I buy anything on eBay. Due to the number of bad circuit boards that Mustang owners have received, it seems logical to me that lower cost equals lower reliability. Good quality materials used in the manufacturing of these are not cheap and a fair amount of labor is involved, too, as well as expensive equipment to cut the boards out. It would cost me $20 to $25 dollars for the material for one circuit board, and then I would have to etch the circuits, and then cut them out. While I have the knowledge on how to do it, there's no way I would do it.
Whenever I need a new one, I'll likely get a hard wired one from Midlife, even though I have the knowledge and ability to do my own. He's done the research and found the correct parts, and I would be starting from scratch.
I'm too old and my knuckles bleed too easy to do a job more than once.
What actually is involved with the MIDLIFE hardwired repair, and what is the cost? :shootself:
OK...let's talk about the reliability issue of the circuit cards. It turns out most of the problems are on 1969/70 dash clusters, as their mounting shell is metal and consequently grounded to the chassis. When you remove a circuit card, you have to remove the retaining nuts on each gauge post, install the new card, and re-install the retaining nuts. On a 69/70, there is a cardboard-like insulating pad that insulates each post from one another. And here's the problem: there's enough slop in the mounting of the gauges that either post can contact the metal structure without realizing it, as it is covered by the insulating pad and the circuit card: you can't see the contact which will cause a short. When this happens, the gauge will not work, and if you short out the power post to the gauge, all other gauges will also not work. The only way out of this dilemma is to mount everything and measure resistance from each post to the chassis: it needs to be on the order of 100kohms, not 1 and not 13 ohms (the other two readings).
On a 1971-1973, the case is plastic, so the probability of shorting is much reduced. Here, the reliability one sees in a new card is due entirely to the quality of the card and the contacts on the connector. My experience is that I clean every connector contact and measure the continuity of the wire to the contact...about 10% of the pins need to be re-crimped.
So...let's answer your other question: What is involved with the hardwire repair? It costs $100, and is best done when you send in your underdash harness for refurbishment, as I replace the dash cluster connector with a Molex quick-disconnect. I provide about 12 or more inches of pigtail on the dash cluster side, so you can actually put your cluster on the dash pad and check things out there if you want; it also makes it much easier to remove and install. If you don't send in the underdash, I provide the mating connector and wire pigtails, and you would be responsible for splicing the pigtails to your underdash harness wires. I provide a detailed pin-out of the wires, wire colors, and function, as well as a lay-out of where all of the hard-wired (e.g. lamp sockets, 90* slip-on connectors, battery snaps for the voltage regulator, etc.) as well as marking the wires (e.g. A, B, C, 1, 2, 3). If you can color within the lines, chew food, or breathe, you can install the dash cluster harness.
And DonC is correct: finding the right parts was half the battle.
You can go to this thread for more information on this:
https://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-can-the-instrument-cluster-be-hard-wired
