Don't know if this has been covered before but oh well..

Here are the symptoms..

INST Pnl fuse is fine.
Dimmer turns on dome light.
Dash lights don't come on.
Grounds are good.


Here's how I fixed it..

Go up to radioshack and buy a "power transistor".. It's made of NPN silicon. It cost me $1.99.

Take the lower panel off, underneath the Steering wheel. Below the dimmer switch, you will see a heat sink and a wire harness. Unbolt this (2 bolts) and unplug the wire harness... Unbolt the 2 bolts holding the transistor to the harness and pull it out.. Push the new one on, make sure the fuse for the inst. panel is no more than 5 amps. Bolt it back in, plug the harness in. Test the lights now. If the fuse is still good, the lights should come on. Its a pretty good fix only costing $2...

Hope this helped anyone who had the same problem as me.. What happened to me was I put a 15 amp fuse in after the 5 amp fuse blew. Then the transistor blew because of the increased amperage.. The blown transistor will show no signs that it's out, there is no way to test it either..

 

Hi,Im having similar problem, but I only lost the lights on the left side of my instrument panel, and it was over time, not like they all worked then all went out at the same time. In other words, the light at the bottom of my speedo blew out first, wasent too bad so I lived with it, then like a year later (last night) the entire speedo light went out, but Tach side of the panel is still lit and working fine---is it a bulb thing?, or a printed board thing or what? Just wondering, Thank you...

------------------
(Kill the headlights, and put it in neutral)

--George
92 RS 25th Aniv.
350 Goodwrench (NEW LO5)
700R4 Raptor: high performance intermediate billet servo, high performance overdrive billet servo,Mega Valve,13 vane high performance pump,1800 heavy-duty stall converter and a 29 element heavy-duty forward input sprag,
New: AC Delco Disrtrib,Heater Core, Shocks-Struts (sensatracks), Bosch 02 sensor, AC Delco Starter & Alternator,Radiator,Water Pump,Rotors,Cat-back,T-Tops.

 

My suggestion is to pull the cluster out and check the bulbs.. If only 2 are out then you probly just have a dead bulb because all the other bulbs (except check engine, turn signals, ect.) in the dash run off the same relay...