Are different parts of the under dash fuse box powered separately? Mine (87XJ) has no power to the instrument/gauge fuses, but power to other slots.

 

Yes, the are fed from the PDC, which is near your battery under the hood. Check the fuses and relays there.

 

Are you talking about the solenoid with the fusable links? Any particular one for just that part of the fuse box?

Mine is a base model, so not power windows/locks etc.

 

I'm not aware of any solenoid with fusible links, but then, you have an 87. Maybe that's different. My bad. If you have fusible links, it's quite possible one of them is fried. Sometimes you can't tell just by looking at them. They can melt inside the jacket without it showing externally. You need to tug on them to see if they stretch. They shouldn't.

You might find some good info at cruiser54.com, and there's some good general info on fusible links here.

 

Key ON? No power? Gauges or just lighting to the gauges?

 

It will start, and run just fine. The left side of the panel appears to have power. Neither the gauge or instrument fuses do (17 & 19). Gauges don't work, didn't check lights. I'm out of town this week, so I can't really look at it more. It started out as me swapping from a base model cluster to one with a tach and gauges. It appeared to work at first, or at least the tach did. But, the volt gauge didn't. Fiddled with it a bit more, then nothing worked.

 

Sounds like you need to first check if the fuse box has power to the fuse.
If it does then you need to remove the cluster and check the races... Remove and reattach everything you can just might fix it.
The pre-96-97 has a flexible circuit board everything powers through... It is also quick to corrode and warp around some connections when removed or not stored properly...

 

Neither fuse sockets have power.

The cluster is not currently in it.

 

The gauges fuse is fed from a yellow wire coming off the ignition switch. If the fusible link to the ignition switch went, you'd be getting nothing at all when you turn the key. No wipers, starting, etc. Bad or misadjusted ign switch is my initial guess.

 

That might be good info. Is there a diagram to depict that? My Chilton didn't get that deep.

 

So, after fiddling with this a bit more... I found that the fuse box was kinda covered in a film. Hmm. Pulled out a couple other fuses, and they sticky, and the fuse body was very brittle. Swapped in a different fuse, and the gauge slot only worked if I pushed on it. Hosed it down with contact cleaner. Now, it appears the little prongs for the fuse are not close enough together. Weird, but made it wok.

On to what brought this all on, swapping base gauges for an actual cluster. Reading through here in the past suggested is was a straight swap. Well, I guess not. Only the Tach and volt gauge seem to work correctly. Key on, the temp and oil gauges don't budge. While cranking, the temp gauge will swing all the way to the right. Once started the oil gauge pegs.

Looking at th couple different diagrams I have (haynes and a different online one that differ) it suggests there is more to it. Anyone successfully done this by just swapping the cluster?

 

I don't know about for an 87 but as far as I know on every year you need to change temp sender and oil pressure sender when swapping gauge clusters.

 

Note from DJ

It you have a manual transmission that means that it has a hydraulic clutch system.
There is push rod which is attached to the clutch pedal that activates the clutch master cylinder when the clutch pedal is depressed; if the clutch master cylinder has leaked or is leaking this rod is located directly over the fuse panel under the dash. This will cause hydraulic brake fluid to drip onto the fuse panel, which raises havoc with the wiring and connectors in the fuse panel.

 

If you've had brake fluid in there, the fuse contacts and wires are probably very corroded. You might want to consider rebuilding the fuse panel. It's not hard if you know how to solder or crimp the new terminals on. You might have to trim back on some of the wires to get into good copper and splice on a new section. Take lots of pictures as you pull it apart to know where the wires go.. The pins are readily available (see the link below for a source and part numbers). I did mine a few years ago because I'd have to periodically tap the fuse block with my foot while driving to get the gauges back on. Probably about 2-1/2 hours start to finish.

https://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1142103

 

Brake fluid could be the culprit.