My 1980 TA has no dash lights

The first thing you should do is check the fuses. It's possible that a fuse has blown, causing the lack of power to the dash lights, gas gauge, temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, and instrument panel lights. If the fuses are all good, then you may need to check the wiring harness for any loose connections or damaged wires. If the wiring is all good, then you may need to replace the instrument cluster.

This suggests the starter motor might be starting to fail. It's normal for the dash lights to go off for a moment as you turn the key as the starter uses a lot of voltage to spin the motor. Have you checked the fuse and the relay are OK? The solenoid and starter motor are a one piece unit so how did you change the solenoid? Have you tried replacing the entire starter motor? The issue could be between the solenoid and the motor itself.

Replace the switch on the steering Colum it has gone bad not a big deal to change.

Hi, Sorry to tell you but whats happened is you have failed to keep all the wiring & where the dash is concerned the printed circuit has been disturbed which is the problem. Find an electrical vehicle technician to remove the dash & sort it all out you will no doubt need to replace certain printed circuit technician to sort the problem out. Please leave me feed back Malcolm Campbell, [email protected] Thanks.

All go out at once, first check fuses,then dimmer switch for dash lights, finally headlight switch. To check dimmer switch, pull connection off back, on harness with test light and headlight switch activated, 1 of the leads should have power, if so, use ohm meter on dimmer to make sure it has reading between 0 and some value, if no value, open, dimmer is bad, if there wasn't power then check headlight switch, there should be heavier gauge wire that powers switch and 1 for output to hi/lo switch, smaller gauge wires for tail lamps, dash lights, license plate lamps, parking lights. The color wires from dimmer would correspond to the same colored wires on headlamp switch, probe that connection on headlamp switch with switch engaged and see if you have power, if not replace switch, if so, check wire from switch to dimmer.Now if the lights slowly went from bright one day, to less bright some other day, to not working, then the bulbs are bad... good luck...

I would try to repair the wiring that is damaged with similar gauge wire, solder and use heat shirk tubing. Trying to replace the entire harness would be rather involved. I would remove all the aftermarket electronics.

This sounds like your cluster. This 2 happened to my 2005 chevy cavalier. But my temp and oil pressures never stopped working. I would get a mechanic to find out exactly if it is your cluster. A bad ground or a short could possibly cause this problem 2.
This is quite an expensive part. But if you must know how to do it yourself then here it goes.
First you need to order the cluster so that you can replace it.
Then once recieved you have to remove the entire dash.
Once the dash is removed you can access the cluster. It is held on by a few bolts and a few wireing harnesses. Nothing major.
Replace it, put the wires back together and assemble the dash. Fairly simple once you can get to it.

To remove the dash I made a post earlier. Here is a cut and paste.

Clarification of the would be greatly appreciated. However the entire dash is held on with about 10-15 screws.
Open both doors and pop off the platic covers normally hiden when the doors are closed. Remove the screws from both sides here.
Then open the glove box. There are 2 screws that hold on a metal bracket, remove them.
On the top-middle of the dash there is a vent to defrost your windshield.One screw holds it on, remove it (phillips I believe).Then remove the screws under the vent so that the dash can be completly removed.
The top part of the dash a 5" strip closest the to windshield will have to be removed frist. By simply pulling it up from the sides.
The entire dash can then be removed fairly easy by pulling it apart from the housing for the odometer and across the entire dash.
The housing that is around your odometer can then be removed by simply removing a few screws across the top and under the radio. You will have to disconnect the wireing harness for the light adjuster left of the blinker on the dash. to remove this part. (I had a little trouble getting this out so I had to take apart the plastic housing for the ignition. 3 bolts slightly bigger then the ones on the dash under neath.)

well its either the wire between the tank and guage in dash or it is the gauge in the dash

try changing the headlight switch,I had a similar problem only mine happened after I accidentaly short out when I was replacing the horn pad and for some reason when I replaced the headlight switch the problem went away.

you need to go over your entire wiring harness, under the hood and inside the dash. Start with the ground wire on the battery and work your way inside. It sounds like there is a loose ground wire somewhere