FIXED!

It has been REALLY cold here so I didn't get around to probing with a good wiring diagram until yesterday. Armed with a decent diagram from trichard, the old cluster and my handy Fluke 77 the gremlins didn't stand a chance...

It turns out that there were two problems, both related to the flexible PC board on the back of the cluster.

First was a fuseable link located above connector A and slightly to the drivers side of the cluster. Bridging the gap the meter indicated 1 amp so I put a 2 amp fuse across the burned out link. I used a fuse that has wire leads and simply used two screws into the existing holes to make the connection.

With that done the entire cluster came to life minus the fuel gauge. The check on that is:

bottom hole - fuel sender resistance. In my case around 40 ohms. OK!

drivers side top hole - 0 ohms to ground. OK!

passenger side top hole - +12VDC. NOTHING! This is fed by the previously fixed fuseable link so tracing the path on the PC board yields a poor solder connection right below the E connector. Touch it with a soldering iron and some solder and FIXED!

So now everything works and is mostly put back together except I have not snapped in the instrument cluster bezel just in case the fuse decides to pop. A copy of the wiring diagram is in the glove box along with a spare fuse. If the cluster makes it a month or so without problems the bezel gets snapped back in.

Thanks so much for the help!