1983 300DTurbo - No Instrument Panel Lights

[Codifex Maximus]

I can't seem to get my instrument panel lights to work. Can't see how fast I'm going at night. One of the things on my list of things to fix.

I pulled my instrument cluster and noticed that the spring in the ?dimmer? was stretched out. I figure this spring is part of a rheostat/variable resistor but also realize that there is no easy way to fix that I can see.

I get another instrument cluster that has an un-stretched spring. The spring is loose and almost bent while I was testing it. I did alot of work on the cluster. Clock still doesn't work, painted the needles with florescent paint, clean it, checked all the bulbs. Had to superglue the spring into the rheostat to keep it from bending. Still no lights in the instrument cluster. Retained my original speedo too.

All my other indicator lights (flasher, charge, brake, high beam, seat belt and glow plug) work and gauges (fuel, temp, oel, speedo, odo + reset, tach) work fine too - some improvement.

One thing though... the lights in the rest of the dash don't work either... environment controls and such. Fuse?

Codifex
1981 240D SkyBlue (waiting on an engine)
1983 300DTurbo w/sunroof