New cluster did not fix the dead Gauge issues HELP
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typical 66 dart tiny grounds. you sure can't get enough of them for sure.
the red circles are the only ground point on that instrument cluster there are supposed to be 4 of them(yep your screw heads are "IT" and that isn't much to rely on for a 40+ year old car). especially on a "painted a zillion times" dashboard so all that grounds is the threads through thin metal. I pulled 5 layers of paint (one latex paint at that) off of my dashboard:glasses7:
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you can see my grounding wire sticking out the back of this picture, I also cheated and built a 12volt regulator to limit my current to 12volts for my LEDs also.
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plus most darts have the 4th tab broke off at some point or other. out of 4 clusters I only have one that has all 4 tabs on it.(the one you can't see in the first picture)
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I usually add this grounding wire to any one of the yellow screws circled and to the dashboard or brake pedal frame, one on the convertible top motor, one in the trunk for rear lighting (since I run LEDs back there they "like to be well grounded) and 2 extra in the engine compartment. 1 behind the headlight bucket for headlights/turn/parking and 1 braided to engine from the firewall.
oh and do the relay upgrade for your lights if you have not already done so. you WILL be pleased at how much better the voltage is at the bulbs and how much strain you take off the headlight switch..
umm hmmm ?I think the orange wire on the headlight switch is the dash illumination. Check the FSM to make sure, mine isn't near me right now.
plus as 67dart273 said you need to ground the end on the wire temporarily and see if the gauge moves. don't do it long, just enough to see if the wire is good to the gauge.
check the flat wire connectors that go over the pins also. mine were crusty and would give me problems till I "purple powere'd" them. It cleaned them up (and the wiring too!) really well. But I did have to "adjust" the pin connections a bit to make sure they stayed tight in the new pins. I had some old brads that was a little bit smaller then the pins to tighten too on the bottom of the connector and left the top tight to the plastic.
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If the gauge moves then check the ground to firewall or frame on the engine block, if that's good then check sender unit.