Going to throw this out here and see if any one has had this issue before. Maybe I can pick some ones brain on it.
I have a 94 dakota 3.9 auto 2x2 159,000 miles. No aftermarket electrical add ons. Bone stock. With no recent repair work done.
Gauges,lighting, and buzzer work normal. When head lamps are off.
When turning on head lamps,or park lamps. All gauges go dead. Including tach and spedo. High beam indicator and turn indicators light up. There is no back lighting at all-exept radio light. All external lighting-head lamp,turn,tail are working fine. You can make the gauge needles sweep back and forth with the dash ligh dimmer. The seat belt buzzer will stay on all the time, if belt is not pluged in. High/low beam works even though dash high beam is lit. Turn sigs. will flash on dash when turned on,but both stay lit.
When this first happened. I thought it was fluke. It did it one time and stoped. Then it became intermitent it would or sometimes would not do it. Now it is all the time. with in about a 2 week time frame.
Sorry about the long post. wanted to get all info on there. I was thinking it could be a ground issue,shorted head lamp switch,or bad cluster. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

Sure sounds like a ton of wiring problems. Check your grounds and power feeds for all the problem circuits. Also check ALL wiring everywhere.

 

i know this sounds crazy but i had an almost similar problem in my 89 jeep cherokee. turned out to be just the headlight switch was fried and it shorted out every bump. everything would go dead or just jump around......

 

I could definitely see that happening. I'd personally start by replacing the switch first and see if that works before jumping into all the wiring. But thats just me.

 

I replaced the head lamp switch wednesday. As of today I havent had any more issues. All is well. Thanks for the input.

 

Doesn't hurt to look at all the wiring of the things that weren't working just cause or maybe one of them shorted out and caused the switch to go faulty perhaps?

 

I KNOW. While I was in there. Noted there is a ground stud by drivers right knee. It has 3 wires on it. One wire is ground strap for radio,one is ground for cig lighter,and other is ground for cluster. Removed wire brushed down to clean metal. Also i had a dash light bulb out in tach. When i remove cluster found that cluster bulbs are all 194. Since I had it out and i get bulbs free at work. Replaced them all. There is about 20 of em. I cked over the wiring and found no signs of rubing and all is secure. Did not pull wires out of loom at this point. Going to run with it for now. Will update if problem comes back,or i get any new Info to pass on.