Glad to have found this forum. My name is jack in West Texas where I have been a real estate appraiser for years. I am also a disabled Vet with bad hip which forced me to retire about 2 yrs ago. I inherited my 2002 Ranger from my Dad. And drove it for business for last 3 years of work. It only has 70,500 miles but I realize it is getting old. However, it runs well and only big repair has been water pump.
About 6 weeks ago I noticed while stopped in traffic that the speedometer needle was twitching or bouncing from the 10 mph base up to 15 mph. RPM and other gages were still normal. Truck still ran fine but needle still twiched when sitting still and when I put in park. Did not do it again for several days then did it again then stopped. No check eng. lite. Battery and alt. test okay.
Did not take to a shop because it ran fine and I knew it was not likely to repeat at the shop and they would just start throwing parts at it. However, now in last 2 weeks it has failed to start on a few occasions. No crank or even a click. No dash or head lights or radio. Jiggled shifter and rocked truck in park and it started like normal. This has been random too. Are these problems related? Can a regular shop find this type problem or do I have to go to a dealer with some kind of supper scanner? Any thoughts on what to look for will be appreciated.

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2002 Ranger, extnd cab, XLT, 2 wd, 3.0, auto. No mods except bug shield and side step bars.