Hi, I was just driving home with my headlights on -- I heard some sorta click and the right side of my gage cluster went insane. It looks like the very top light bulb burnt out. My tach flew up to redline (engine nowhere near it.) Temp and oil pressure zero. Right turn signal indicator stuck on. When I turn on the right turn signal the indicator blinks and tach drops slightly and becomes somewhat responsive. I think the gages are still messed when the lights are off (too dark now to tell).

WTF? Does anyone have a clue? Fuse, short, bulb??? HELP PLEASE!!!

 

My cluster is doing something very similar.. and I have NO CLUE what the hell is causing it..

I guess some autometer guages or an intellitronix digital cluster are in my car's future..

 

Pull out the cluster and check the PC traces on the back of it...I'll bet there is a broken ground trace among them as the same thing happened to mine years ago. Everything was normal with the dash lights off, but when you turned up the brightness control, the right side would act exactly as you've described, except my tach stayed about 2500 rpm.
To fix it, you can run a jumper wire across the broken section; I carefully soldered a wire to a couple of bare spots on the trace.

Pete

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HiOutput Tech Page
83 SC
203+k mile LG4/5-speed
14.935@94.14

 

That sounds like the problem... Now I'm debating whether or not I want to upgrade to a better cluster or not... Maybe one with a higher speedo or even a digital... My cluster has always been sorta messed up (hard to explain ;-).

Thanks for the info man, you just saved me from a major migraine... ;-).

 

It might just need to be "plugged" in better. You could check first, anyway. Might save some trouble if that's the case. Just take off the bezel, and PUSH in the whole cluster, and while holding it, use a socket and tighten the two speed nuts better.

If that's not the problem, there's a bit of a design flaw anyway. One of the traces goes under the cluster and back around, and there's a sharp screw pointing straight up at it. A little vibration and it just saws right through the trace. The particular circuit is related only to the fuel gauge though. I swapped it with a shorter screw from someplace where a longer one wouldn't hurt anything.