Dash lights and guages stop working when lights turned on?

[turbovanman²]

86 GLHT, guages work great, turn lights on, stop working and no lights. I had to chop the gas at 120K on the freeway last night and they suddenly started working, then this morning, no go again. Is this a common thing? ground problem? cluster issues? bad headlight switch?

[JDAWG]

the headlight switches and the plug likes to melt

[Captain Chaos]

I was going to suggest the same thing. I had a car that the spade terminal was loose on the switch and had an internal short. The plug also got melted because of it.

[marc]

Its a bad ground. The gages are finding the ground thru the dash lights, when you turn on the headlights that ground becomes hot.

[turbovanman²]

Its a bad ground. The gages are finding the ground thru the dash lights, when you turn on the headlights that ground becomes hot.

That's where I was leaning, just wondered if its a common issue on these car's and where is the ground?

[marc]

it could anywhere from the cluster printed circuit board to the where it grounds to the body. I'm guessing that its a loose pin that goes to the plug on the printed circuit board. You can also add a ground by soldering a wire to the printed circuit board and ground it to the body.