[V8] intermittent dash lights and other weirdness

[Mike Arman]

Whacking the top of the console may fix the dash lights (and/or the fuel gauge and/or the temp gauge 
and/or the autocheck and/or the whatever) for a few moments, but the fix is to remove the instrument 
cluster and check for cold solder joints at the inter-board connection pins.

Guarantee you'll find some, and some of the pins may actually be loose - a few seconds with a 
soldering pencil (be careful, this stuff is expensive!) will cure this and all kinds of other 
obscure electrical ailments. BTDT, works a charm.

After you've fixed the cold solder joints, then add some contact enhancer. Just using the contact 
enhancer without fixing the cold solder joints is like putting a band-aid on a concussion - maybe it 
looks better, but you'll still have to go back in all over again anyway, so you might as well do a 
complete and proper job the first time. Do it right = do it once.

Besides, this is your golden opportunity to change the couple of dash lights that burned out decades 
ago and you didn't want to go to the trouble of pulling the whole cluster to replace just one tiny 
light bulb.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman
90V8Q