Hi,

I have a 1986 Volvo 240DL and the dashboard lights have all been going out at the same time as well as just dimming at times. This is of course only happening when the headlights are on.
I've been able to tap the plastic cover and get them to go on again until recently when they went dark and the two blinker lights and the hi-beam indicator light just stayed permanently illuminated.

I removed the cluster and the completely circular plug with the 12 wires in it seems to be the culprit. When I jiggle it around the lights work correctly but when I put the cluster back in it goes out again. I tried pinpointing exactly which of the 12 wires is the problem but since they are all so close together it is difficult to only move one of the wires at a time to test.

Any suggestions of how to get this working properly again?

Tx!

 

Anyone?!?

 

Sure. You have a bad connection somewhere. If it's all the instrument lights including the rocker switch and heater control illumination lights - I would start by making sure the dash light rheostat was working and maybe bypass it to provide full voltage all the time (dash lights are pretty dim in a 240 anyway)

If it's just the instrument cluster - you have a bad connection. A voltmeter, test light and an ability to follow wiring and electrical signals will be needed. Blinker and hi indicator on at the wrong time might indicate a bad ground -

 

This is isolated to just the instrument cluster, it's not all of the instrument lights.

It appears to me the "bad ground" theory sounds most accurate.

How does one confirm this using my voltmeter?
And if I do confirm that the black ground wire, out of the 12 wires on the circle of wires, is bad what 's the fix?

Tx.