Gauges not working when headlights are on

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Lugnut

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Northwest Georgia
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Jason
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1979, 1986
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K20, C10
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'79) 350/ granny 4-speed, '86) 350/A833 3-speed with overdrive
I woke up to snow again this morning in north Georgia, so I drove my '79 K20 to work. I noticed this morning that when I turned on my headlights that I had no dash lights, the dash blinker lights came on, my gas gauge went to empty, oil pressure went to 0, and heat gauge went beyond hot. If I turned my lights off everthing goes back to normal. I haven't had time to look into it yet, but hoped someone might have an idea where to start looking.
Thanks
 

bucket

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350-454
My '77 did that once, it turned out to be a bad spot in the cluster's printed circuit. It was repaired by soldering in a bypass wire to go around the bad spot.
 

Lugnut

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Northwest Georgia
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Jason
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1979, 1986
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K20, C10
Engine Size
'79) 350/ granny 4-speed, '86) 350/A833 3-speed with overdrive
Thanks, I checked fuses and grounds, but I haven't pulled the cluster out yet. Will do that this weekend once all this snow is out of here and it warms up a little.
 

bucket

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Oh, and IIRC, the bad spot was in the ground trace around the perimeter of the cluster. I think it was near an edge and moisture probably got in between the layers over time. It's been a few years though, so I could be talking out of my ass at this point ;)
 

Lugnut

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223
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688
Location
Northwest Georgia
First Name
Jason
Truck Year
1979, 1986
Truck Model
K20, C10
Engine Size
'79) 350/ granny 4-speed, '86) 350/A833 3-speed with overdrive
Thanks bucket for the heads up. I pulled out my cluster yesterday to find that the printed circuit had started coming apart, and some of the copper had broken. I had another printed circuit laying around and changed it out and everything is working again.

Tried to post it up last night but couldn't find it everything got moved around.

:)
 

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