I have '96 Dakota SLT, V8, 5-speed. My dash lights go out every few days. The next day they will work. Jiggling the light switch doesn't help and the fuse is fine. I did put an aftermarket radio in the dash about 10 months ago, but this problem just started about a month ago.

Couldn't find anything on a forum search. Would appreciate any ideas!

Thanks.

Bob

 

I had this problem too. It turned out to be a bad connection on the back to the instrument cluster.
Solving the problem is pretty easy, just kinda time consuming.
All you need is some di-electric grease, a screwdriver, the proper size Torx bits (and a multimeter if you have one), and, some time.
The following info is coming straight from the service manual because I have since forgot it)
1.) Disconnect negative battery cable.
2.) Remove the knee blocker (the plasic piece under the steering wheel, 2 screws)
3.) Remove the lower left insturment panel end cap (2 screws)
4.) Remove cluster bezel (on my truck its the plastic wood grain piece; 2 screws at lower edge on either side of steering column, 8 screws on the face)
5.) Remove cluster lens and mask (4 screws)
6.) Remove the cluster. (? screws)
NOTE: The cluster will only come so far forward. There are two round connectors on the rear, one on the left (red) and one on the right (gray). Its pretty tricky to get to them, but, its possible.

The problem lies with the left (red) connector. Cavity E (the wire is the orange wire by the black wire.) isn't making a good connection. (Using the multimeter you can test to make sure there is voltage, and than turn the headlight **** like you are dimming the lights, and voltage will drop)
What I did was put some di-electric grease on this connection (and, just for the hell of it, I put some on every connection), and than, reconnected the connector, connected the battery, and tested the lights. Everything worked, so, I put everything back together.
I did this 3 months ago, and, my lights have never had a problem.

 

Looking over various threads on cluster problems, mine does this. Turn key on sometime and the gauges peg, turn signal lights are on dimly, buzzer is on at reduced level. Off with key typically cures that. Sometimes the oil gauge does not come on after start. The thump on the cluster area gets that going. Having a ghost in the machine also now with blowing the tail/cluster lights fuse. Have to consider a short.
Seeing the previous reply on this makes me think that fix is the way to go. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

thi sound sliek my 95 neon... hit the dash all is good.. otherwise i had nothing tho.. complete dash was out gauges and all..... but after a while even hitting dash solved nothing

after removing gauges and inspecting i noticed on the main PCB the cold solder joins were cracked and lost contact.. i re soldered every solder joint and there was alot, Everything was great after reassembled

This might not be your issue but thought i would mention it since you said gauges had issues aswell as mine neon i had nothing LOL