Nissan Repair: Nissan frontier gauges, vehicle speed sensor, speedometer cable

Question
I have a 1998 Nissan Frontier and the gauges work except the speedometer, however sometimes when the weather changes or there is a heavy rainfall the others start acting up, it is not an all the time problem just comes and goes? Someone mentioned maybe the ignition switch was getting a bad connection? I don't know I really do not want to have to send my cluster off and wait around for a week or two seeing as how this is my only vehicle. Any suggestions?

Answer
Lonnie,

First, if the speedometer is inoperative the usual suspect is the vehicle speed sensor at the transmission.  This is where the speedometer cable used to go.  Now, there is square wave generator that is in its place.  That should correct the speedometer.  Second, if the cluster is doing strange things the first thing to do is to remove it and clean the connector and the harness connector and reinstall it.  Use a number 2 pencil eraser to shine up the contacts adn blow off the dust and reinstall it.  If that does not do the trick replace the cluster.  A wrecking yard is a cheap alternative to the around $200 to $300 bucks for a rebuilt cluster.