Wes,
  If you are suspicious of one of those "stars", connect it to a solid
ground temporarily using a wire with alligator clips.
Be careful about clipleads which have the alligator clips just crimped
onto the wire; check them with your ohmmeter.  Their resistance should
be no more than a few tenths of an ohm.
  You can also check that the resistance from the star to ground is
close to zero.
If you can figure out the Bentley diagram, it should show where the
ground point is for the dash lite circuit.

Larry A.

Wesley Pegden wrote:

> I'm trying to decipher a strange ground issue: if I shift my (not
> original) tape deck so that it's not making contact with the metal
> around the dash, the back lights for the dash go out.  I don't notice
> any other symptoms.  I checked all the wires going into the "star"
> ground connectors behind the fusebox, and they seem okay.  I didn't
> unscrew the stars themselves, because I couldn't get good access with
> all the wires to put enough torque on my stubby screwdriver.  Do these
> sometimes need a good sanding?  And how can I remove them?  (Or: what
> else might my problem be...)
>
> Thanks very much,
> Wes
>
> '84 1.9l manual
>