I've searched and read quite a few posts on here about gauges not working. I realize there is a short somewhere but nobody seems to come back and share where they found the issue. I'm sure there are a number of places that could cause issues but I'm hoping there are a few common places that maybe if I try first I'll get lucking!

Please share where you found the short that caused all your gauges to stop working

 

Probably not a "short", per se.

Although there could conceivably be a "short" that caused the cause.

If ALL the gauges that are electric stopped working at the same time, I'd be checking the GAGES (yes that's how it's marked) fuse.

If the fuse is blown, then there could possibly be a "short" somewhere that blew it. Since all the pink/black wires under the hood are on that same circuit, if one of those got damaged somehow, that could have blown the fuse.

What kind of car are we working on here?

 

Sorry more details could only help.

I already checked the fuse for the gauges, that is good.

I have a 1986 IROC.

 

I had a bad circuit board. Extreme moisture / corrosion damage. Replaced it and all the lights at the same time. Then only the oil pressure gauge was maxing out, and that was a bad oil pressure switch.

 

SOOO.... I go back and check the fuse one more time, I pull it out and it looks fine. I have this nagging feeling so I grab my multimeter. "what if the fuse isn't getting power..." I'm not sure how that would happen or if its even possible but I go with it. There is power on one side of the fuse but not the other. I pull it out and it looks fine. I grap another 10 amp fuse and the gauges work!!!

I tried to take a pic but you can't see any issues in it. The fuse popped on the very top, and no burnt mark in the plastic. Looking at it the part of the fuse you would expect it to separate looks fine. I would have sworn on my life that the fuse was good. Maybe this is why people don't come back on and explain what they found wrong... shame and embarrassment!!

Sofakingdom's signature says it all:

Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
— William of Ockham, c. 1330 AD, from Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi

Roughly paraphrased into modern English, and applied to figuring out what's wrong with your car:

The simplest explanation that fits all the facts is most likely to be the right one.

 

We've all been there at least once... glad it was that easy for you.