Short in my dash ?

[ghostmonkeys]

Hello, I have an 85' blazer with an 88 4.3 engine in it, I'm having this problem where at night when i have my lights on, My dash lights will just go hay wire, If i tap my dash kinda hard they'll go back to normal, I'm assuming this is probably a short, but dont wanna go pulling it apart if its something else,
And also my fuel gauge isn't working right, It'll bounce around, Sometimes it'll drop all the way down below " E " , Sometimes when i shut if off it'll move to about a quarter of a tank, then when i turn it on it'll drop down to " E " , No idea what it is, Just looking to see if anyone could help me, Thanks.

[michelq]

most likly is gauges wire plug is not all the way in
reach the plug and push it in

[ghostmonkeys]

Do i need to take the front of the dash off to get to the " wire plug" ? or do i have to go from underneath the dash ?

[michelq]

you go from underneath

[Bronco2]

Your gas gauge is probably a bad sending unit-try twisting the dashlite dimmer switch and see what happens-prob. a bad connection in the switch-beating on the dash shakes it around enough to make a connection

[ghostmonkeys]

I figured it out, My light switch had a loose ground, My gas gauge is still wrong, When I fill the tank, On the gas gauge it says just alittle over 1/4 of the tank, And it'll drop way down past " E " , So i'm guessing its the sending unit in the tank , Thank you all for your info on the whole dash thing, Kinda feel dumb now heh, Any info on the whole gas gauge/tank/sending unit would be cool, Thanks again .