I have a 99 Dakota 3.9, 4wd with 100k miles. Lately, all the gauges have been flicking back and forth rapidly along with the instument lights flashing, which can sometimes be remedied with a smack of my hand on the top of the dash. I took the instrument cluster out, and looked inside the dash, but I couldn't find any bad ground or broken wires. Could it be that I missed something, or could the problem lie within the instrument cluster itself?

 

how about your battery terminals?

 

I hadn't really thought of that because the truck starts fine,and hasno other problems, and like I said, the problem sometimes goes away with a rap on the top of the dashboard. However, I am not willing to rule out anything right now. I will c/s the battery and cables tomorrow (if I can do so without freezing my tail off.) I will let you know if this fixes it.
Thanks

 

I believe they are just like the Neons, I had one before where I had to push on the front of the Gauge Cluster in order for them to work. Its a possibility that the gauge cluster could be bad. Check the tabs on the connectors, if they contact other end just fine, then its your gauges. I replaced mine and it worked jsut fine....For the mileage difference all you have to do is keep the old cluster and type up a deal saying when you replaced it, how many miles where on the truck.....Or you could take it to a dealer and have them help ya on that too.

 

sounds like you have a loose conection

 

Thanks for the replies. I cleaned the battery terminals, and replaced both clamps, also charged the battery, andthei/cis still being a dink. When I have time, I will re-check for loose connections, and if that isn't the problem, I will do like 02-06 says and find a replacement i/c.

 

sounds like cracked solder on the cluster at the plugs(just like the neons as said), take out the cluster and look at both sides of the board with a magnafing glass for hairline cracks, if so a few mins with a solder iron to reflow the solder and you're good as new

 

I finally felt like messing around with my instrumentcluster problem today. I started taking the dash apart, then I decided to check the fuses. With the ignition on,I pulled the fuse for the instrument cluster. The fuse looked fine so I put it back in. As soon as I did so, the gauges stopped doing their little dance. After several cycles ofstarting the truck and driving it, it still works fine. Maybe something in the computer went psycho for some reason, and pulling the clusterfuse with theignition on maybe reset something. Anyway, it looks like I can consider it to be fixed now. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

bad connection with the fuse, cause whenever you have intermitten connection problems with electrical, its either a bad ground, power source, fuse, or part itself, even in the part itself has a bad connection. on my cirrus, common for one of the resistors to overheat and crack the solder causing the odometer and transmission range board to lose power, few good smacks to the dash and viola came back, but its shot anyway