on an 82 300TD (wagon)....no dash lights, flaky tach, temp and fuel gauge not working...what gives?

anyone have a pic of a "jumped" reostat (spelling?)?

You most likely have a loose electrical plug on the back of the dash. Fashion a stiff wire with a small hook in the end, and use the hook to wiggle the dash cluster out enough to disconnect the wires on the back of it (to entirely remove the dash). The large electrical plug is most likely loose.

Regarding no dash lights, naturally check the two dash bulbs first. They are at the top of the dash cluster. If they are fine, your dimmer is probably bad. The dimmer has only two soldered connections to the circuit board...it is pretty obvious which two they are. If you solder a short insulated wire across the two connections, you will have dash lights at the brightest level, which is about a normal setting for me

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'84 300D ~90k
'82 300SD ~171k
'82 240D ~175k
'96 Ram 2500 with 12V Cummins & 5 speed ~130k

I never use the wire hook on the cluster thing anymore. I just take 2 screws out of the lower knee panel and stick my hand up to the back of the cluster and push it out.

Works much better.

Check your ground connections.

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1981 300D 147k
1998 VW Jetta Tdi 320k
2001 Dodge Ram 2500 141k
1979 300D 234k (sold)
1984 300D "Astor" 262k(sold)
Mercedes How-To and Repair Pictorials
I love the smell of diesel smoke in my hair

I snapped a picture when I did mine a while back, but believe me, you don't need it. I'd recommend doing it though, wish I did it 9 years earlier!

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Why jump it when the rebuild is so simple...
http://web.archive.org/web/20040603004113/instrument.articles.mbz.org/dimmer/

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1999 E300DT (131,800) 154,000 Black on Black SOLD

2006 CLK 500 coupe Capri Blue on Grey (zoom,zoom)
47,000mi

04 VW TDI Passat 80,000mi
(Techno)

How to eliminate oil dependency through market-driven approaches.
“We could cut oil use in half by 2025, and by 2040, oil use could be zero,”
The Sound of Diesel Speed
Ode to MB

Do your other electrics work, ie windows, sunroof?

windows and other items work fine...manual sunroof

when the spring is hanging out and everything inside is shredded it's not rebuildable like that.

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'82 300SD - 361K mi - "Blue"

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."

listen, look, .........and duck.

Thanks a lot for you sharing your knowledge.

Unfortunately, the picture of the tach amplifier in the link you gave is missing. Other pictures are ok.

Can you remediate this please?

Tks.

Here is one: Pictorial - Easy Tachometer Fix

My car had gauge trouble once; wasn't making good contact in the fuse box -

Bryan in NC

I seem to have a similar problem. I have a 83 300 SD and after I installed the Euro headlights all my dashboard light went out a while after. Trying to trace the fault it came to my attention that I didn't have any power going through the #12 fuse which handles the dashboard amongst other things. So far I haven't had any luck yet tracing the fault to it's source. Oh, I also detailed the interior deeply, which in this case means I took all the carpets and seats out. I really would appreciate any suggestions.

It would seem that instument lights are a problem with several models of MB. I recently purchased a 1991, 190E, 2.3 thaty has no dash light whatsoever. I am hoping that it's the dimming switch on the center console that is the culprit before I start tearing into the dash! Being the backyard mechanic type and never having worked on a MB can anyone tell me how to remove the switch from the center console before I take the crow bar to it?