Chevrolet Repair: 1972 monte carlo instument panel lights wont work, jumper wire, circut board

Question
hey Robert, i have a 1972 monte carlo that ive poured all kinds of money into but i cant seem to get the instrument panel lights to work. the temp, oil, volt lights do come on just not the speedo and clock lights. ive replaced the ignition switch, light switch, every bulb in the cluster and the whole car.all fuses are good and power is where it should be. heres the wierd part, one evening when i turned off the car they all came on, and looked perfect, but it was only that once. i tore apart the steering column and rechecked my ignition switch but still no dash lights. everything on this car works perfectly except the dash lights. any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated. thanx

Answer
Hi Ben... when you pull the dash out, do you have power at the plug in the back of the circut panel for the dash lights. if you do, when you use the dash light dimmer does the power dim on that same plug. if you don't have power at the dash plug check for power out of the headlight switch to the dash and does it dim as well. if you have no power out of the dimmer on the headlight switch check the switch...power for the dash lights runs thru that dimmer control...if all is ok there then check the circut board on the back of the dash. if you have power going to it then check the ground out of the plug. make sure that the connection at the plug is good and making contact..if your not sure of the power or ground try using a jumper wire from power and jumper to ground...if it still doesn't light up the panel i would think that the circut board is not good...most of dash light problems are a result of a connection loss at the plug in and poor ground... hope this helps