Aaron and I installed the instrument cluster into his Dart Sport today. After working out the kinks with some grounding problems, burned out bulbs, and blown fuses, we are still left with the following condition:

WITH KEY "OFF" AND HEADLIGHT SWITCH "IN":
Brake lights work when pedal depressed

(normal, safety feature)

Trunk light on with deck lid up

(normal)

Light on when glove box door opened

(normal)

Cigarette lighter element heats up

(normal)

Dome light on BRIGHT when door opened

(normal)

Dome light on DIM if headlight switch is turned

(Headlights take a lot of amps, probably normal, especially if battery charge is down a bit)

Courtesy/Map light only comes on ( VERY DIM) if dome light on with headlight switch, it won't come on simply using its own toggle switch

(bad switch or miswired, low battery)

WITH KEY "OFF" AND HEADLIGHT SWITCH PULLED TO 1st POSITION:
All four side markers on

(Normal)

Front and rear parking/tail lights on

(Normal)

Ash tray light on

(normal)

Heater - A/C control light on

(normal)

Gear selection indicator light on

(normal)

No instrument panel lights on

[[Check instrument light dimmer control (rotate knob)]]

(Forgot to check license plate light or back-up lights)

(Back-up lights only in "run" and "acc" switch positions)

WITH KEY "OFF" AND HEADLIGHT SWITCH PULLED TO 2nd POSITION:
No change in the above
Headlights on
Foot dimmer switch works properly with headlights

(Normal)

WITH KEY IN "ACC" OR "ON" POSITION:
Turn signals work properly

(Normal)

Emergency hazard lights work properly (need to check bulb next to switch)

(should work with key "off" / headlight switch "off")

All three wiper speeds work
All three fan speeds work
(Don't have the radio installed to check it)

(normal)

Basically, everything seems to work OK except the map light and the instrument panel lights. I will say that the instrument panel acted weirdly earlier today. We had the panel only hooked up to the ammeter wires and the headlight switch, not the wiper switch. We were dealing with tail light grounding problems, etc. and noticed the turn signal arrows, high beam indicator light and all panel lights were on but VERRRRRY DIM. When I pressed the floor dimmer switch to change to high beam, the indicator light went out. When I switched to low beam, the indicator light came on. The "OIL" and "BRAKE" lights came on when the key was turned to "ACC" or "ON".

(Lack of circuit board ground to dash framework.)

I might have fixed some of these problems by finding what I think might have been a ground wire disconnected, when we put the panel in correctly. Now, with the panel installed in its proper place and the wiper switch plugged in, none of the panel lights come on for any reason.

See if you can decipher this and come to any conclusion. Is it something as simple as a missing ground wire, or maybe the 5v instrument panel voltage limiter is kaput. I appreciate any input you may have.

The factory 5V limiter is prone to failure. There once was a diagram in Mopar Action to make a solid state regulator to replace it, but I don't have it any more.

Thanks much,
Jerry