I have a 93 Dakota LE 2WD with a v6 automatic transmission with only 38k miles that I got from my Father-in-Law when he couldn't drive any more a couple years ago. The truck is completely original. Last fall one day I went to use the truck and the clock in the radio wasn't working, the radio would not work, the transmission would not shift into overdrive and the cruise control would not work. Ever since then it can be a combinition of the symptoms that come back. If the overdrive isn't working the cruise doesn't work. Sometimes the clock will work and the radio will not but the overdrive and the cruise may be working when this happens. There hadn't been any service done prior to the problems showing up. I've checked every fuse I can find and could not find any bad ones. I just got it out of storage and started driving it again for the summer and would like to figure out what's wrong. It never gets used in the winter, don't want it to get exposed to road salt.

I'm one puzzled Dakota driver in the Dakota's

 

Could be just a bad body ground. On the older dakotas there is one on the bolts that hold the collum to the dash.And one in the kick panel under the E brake

 

I dunno if this helps but my turn signals and dash lights would not work sometimes and since your problem has to do with a component in the steering column too, you may wanna try your wiring at the multifunction switch. Mine would have a bad connection at the plug and sometimes it would be okay. I just disconnected it and twisted the connector so that when I plugged it back up, the pressure from it trying to untwist would keep continuity!

Also my bright lights started staying on and my dash lights would shut off here recently when I turned on my headlamps only. I found that the same connector issue was the problem but this time on the back of my instrument cluster. I "repaired" it the same way and never had anymore troubles from either problem!