Ground problems. Pull the fuse box out and look up behind it. I don't
know what the 85 grounds will look like, the later models (and possibly
yours) have two "crown"-looking fixtures screwed into the metal under
there. Removing and fully cleaning these did it for me.

Jim

On Feb 15, 2006, at 10:41 AM, Michael Diehr wrote:

> My instrument cluster (85 vanagon with auto tranny, with tach)
> recently began exhibiting the following symptoms:
>
> Engine running.
> Headlight switch off:     All is well.
>
> Headlight switch on (either Parking lights or Headlights):
>   Parking and/or Headlights turn on as usual.
>   Water temp gauge drops to zero.
>   Tach drops to zero.
>   Clock turns off.
>   High beam LED glows dimly. (if i turn on high beams, the LED goes
> OUT, ironically)
>   Cluster illumination lights off.
>
> If i rotate the cluster illumination dimmer control, the tach & water
> gauge will flicker to life briefly.
>
> Headlight switch back to OFF:
>   Everything goes back to normal.
>   The water temp gauge blinks for a few seconds (as if you'd just
> turned on the ignition).
>
> Is this more likely a headlight switch failure?   Or perhaps ground
> problems in the fuse box?  Or the voltage regulator issue?
>
> thx!
>