I'd been having to tap on the glass of my instrument cluster lately during warm-up to get my voltmeter gauge working. Recently even that wouldn't work. The needle just laid there resting on the pin.

So while I had the surround off tending to my wiper and dimmer switches I decided to take a look at the gauges. It turns out the problem was an easy fix. The needle was literally sticking to the pin! A quick swab of alcohol and she works good as new.

But now my oil and temp gauges are DOA, D'oh! Probably something simple. They worked fine before I took everything apart. Has anybody had intermittent issues with the gauges? I have had some moisture condensation (bubbly dash, rusty screws, etc)..........

 

Had a similar problem, i just swapped it out with ones i found in the junkyard. They go for like 40-30 bucks on ebay you can easily just swap it out not the speedometer though of course

 

Not intermittent for me. I've got a broken Oil pressure gauge, I think it got an accidental full ground and that burned the gauge out.

Honestly I'm tired of chasing problems with the stupid stock gauges and am thinking of getting prosport instead.

 

I got the oil gauge working by playing with the screws on the back of the cluster that make contact with the printed circuit. Those screws do double duty holding the gauges to the back of the cluster as well as completing the electrical circuit. Now all I have to get going is the temp and I can begin putting the dash and steering back together.

 

I checked the continuity between the gauge contacts and the trace on the circuit board - infinite. It was the dodgy screws - again! I replaced all the rusty screws that hold the gauges to the printed circuit board on the back and all gauges are working spot-on now. While I was in there I replaced the 3.4w bulbs too. I should be good for another 180K miles now.

 

When I pull a cluster apart I always clean the copper contacts that the screws connect to with a little mothers polish. Worked great for me.

 

hmm... maybe I'll try that on my oil pressure gauge, Thanks!