1996 Dodge Caravan/ Instrument Cluster Fail

[rod.wa]

Yes wold like to inform all owners of Dodge Caravans that have problem with the Instrument Cluster not working as far as no Speedometer and lights as well as Gauges. We pulled everything of that we could link to the Dash and we found nothing wrong but we noticed that the rear wipper fuse kept blowing. After being in the shop for hrs and not being able to fix the problem i decided to look at the wiring on the floor, at the back of the van. We found that the wiring harness was shorting out on the Brown and pink stripe wire that was comming from the power fuse, this was pinched on a bolt that holds the wiring harnness to the floor. When we pulled this away from the ground fault the dash and all lights worked again. Three days of looking came down to this simple problem always look for the shorts first in the wiring system not in the electronics. Rod....

[RIP]

Welcome to the forum and a big thanks for this info. Looks like Chrysler gave you a ticking time bomb that took 11 years to show it's ugly face. Turns out that rear wiper fuse blowing was the clue of clues. A lesson for all of us. Many times what appears to be an unassociated problem can be THE problem. Cheers!