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The place you need to start looking at FIRST is the fuse box! These cars have a well known problem with corrosion buildup on the ends of the fuses that cause all kinds of problems. The fuse may appear to be good, but the electrical contact to the fuse block is poor. Remove each fuse and clean the contacts on the fuse block and the fuse ends unless you use new fuses. Make sure you have solid electrical connections and that the fuses are not loose. IPD sells a nice kit that replaces the VW type fuses with standard glass type fuses which do not corrode on the ends. Much better than the VW type fuses!!
Next (if the problem wasn't in the fuse panel) remove the inside rear tail light covers and inspect all electrical connections for corrosion and burnt contacts on the circuit board and where the wiring harness connects to it.
Also make sure the light bulbs are good of course. I too lost my backup lights and I found that a hole had been burnt into the plastic circuit board where the wiring harness connects to it which was causing an open circuit condition on the backup lights. I repaired it using a special copper tape and it's still holding up great after many years.
Unless the vehicle wiring harness has been damaged, I thing you will find most of your problems looking in these two areas. The cluster is easy to remove, but I don't think the problem is in the cluster itself at this point.
DeWayne
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