Chrysler Repair: 1997Caravan: Instrument cluster reading irratic, dashboard light, fuse box

Question
I just purchased this van from someone in the last mth. Everything is great on it except my brother and I cannot figure out why if my dashboard light works, how come my speedometer, gas, mileage reading, temp gauges all don't work only occasionally. During which time my ABS light stays on and my headlights don't always work or shut off and I have no reverse lights. All bulbs and fuses, and battery are all good. The only conclusion we can come up with is recently the transmission was replaced and so is it possible that maybe a wire(s) somewhere were not reconnected? We checked and found that this is not a computer function. Any help would so sooooooo appeciated. THANKS!

Answer
Hi Erika,
I would begin by looking carefully at fuse #2 in the junction block (fuse box) under the dash. It may look good but it could be fatigued and have a crack in the wire that opens and closes as it heats and cools. It is 10 amp.
The other possibility is that a plug on the back side of the the junction box is loose. That back side is the body control module which handles the data that among other things supplies the digital information for your instrument cluster gauges/readings. There are two natural color 40-pin plugs, one of which might be loose. So feel around the back side of fuse box module for those plugs and make sure they are plugged in tightly. Let me know if neither of those prove out and we can look for other causes. Observing, as you have done, the various things that fail at the same time is very helpful to my investigation, so look for more of those "common fault" items.
Roland