Ok my dad has a 96 dakota extended cab 2wd auto with a 5.2 magnum. These guages have allways done this but im thinkin bout buyin it now that my tranny has crapped out on me yet again in my 89. What happens is sometimes when you turn the headlights on the guages completely stop working. the guage lights wont come on but the green signal arrows stay lit green and the bright light indicator is backwards.. When you turn the headlights off everything goes back to normal.. Some nights it'll do this and other nights it's completely normal

 

Sounds like you got a wiring problem.

 

lol you think its in the wiring or in the gauge cluster itself. My dad swears it's something in the computer... if it is the wiring what in the wiring would cause this and where would I look

 

It could be anywhere. It is not the computer. Just take a look.

 

It's not my truck. yet anyways. But as of right now I cant go yanking the dash apart to look at the wiring.

 

I agree, not the computer. Check the wire harness that connects to the firewall on the engine side. Water or bad connections can happen. Those wires control a lot of things including interior/exterior lights and cluster lights.

 

If you try wrapping the dash with the palm of your hand in the vicinity of the headlight switch and the dash lights and gauges start working again, it is most likely a short or as Crazy said, wiring issue. Sometimes this is an indicator the switch is going bad. At least for me. Every time this begins to happen, I replace the switch and all is well. Just a thought.

 

This sounds sort of similar to a problem I had with a '79 bmw almost 20 years ago. The aftermarket radio would not work properly sometimes at night. When the PO installed the radio, they hooked up the radio power or ground to the wire that controlled the brightness of the lights in the dash. Sometimes it worked ok, but if you either turned the dash lights up or down (can't remember which), the radio would start doing really funny things.

Does this truck have any aftermarket electronics/lights/switches? If so, might be good to verify they are wired properly.

Keith

 

Nothing aftermarket on the truck. It is 100% stock. Also weather has no effect on it. It's completely random. And me and my dad both have beat the crap out of the dash and nothing happens.