1991 T10 Blazer 4.3L

On way to work this morning the instrument panel went black/dark/dead along with the radio. Truck was still running fine with all outside lights. When this happened both signal indicators glowed green and the Hi Beam indicator was on. Also I noticed that when it came back on that none of the gauges were working while off.

Once I beat on the dash and everything returned to normal.
Another time I pulled over and revved the engine and it returned to normal.
The last time I blinked my headlights and it returned to normal and stayed normal.

I figure its a loose wire or ground. Does anyone know a good place to start looking?

Does anyone know where the ground for the instrument panel is?

Thanks

 

Just in case anyone has this problem. I figured this one out myself. The rotating varible resistor that brightens the dash cluster lights and also turns on the dome/courtesy lights which is a seperate circuit was shorting out bringing these two circuits together. I do not know why it did not blow a fuse. It should have. Anyway I replaced that switch and it is fixed. Thanks to me.

 

Sounds like the answer to my problem on WIERD SHORT OR BATTERY DRAIN. I'll try what you did and get back with you. Mine is a '86 S10 Blazer Tahoe with the same short as you mentioned. I also noticed my instrument panel flickers when I change gears (automatic transmission).