1986 golf gti cab speedo clock lights not working

Hi I have 1986 golf gti cab and the speedo clock lights dont work so you cant see what speed your going or any of thr instruments at night ,I have taken the clocks out and checked the bulbs which are working cleaned all the contacts on the circuit boards and the plugs that fit to the circuit board there is no evidence of a problem with the circuit board ,checked all the fuses so im lost to as to what is wrong does any body have any clues its driving me mad   thanks for reading would love to hear anybodys comments cheers

Have you checked that the rheostat on the headlight switch for dimming the instruments has good clean contact?

Welcome btw

Does your car have a rheostat (control that allows you to adjust the brightness of the dash bulbs)? Are all the other dashboard lights lit okay or not?

If its not that, then it could be the connector, wiring, or dimmer switch itself.

it does have the rheostat it seems to be clean none of the lights work ecept the light cluster in the center green indicator signals etc.. which is separate all the gauges work  just not the lights that illuminate the dials at night, from what i can see it is three bulbs ,is there any why to bypass the rheostat to identifie if it is the problem or does any one know a specialist gargage i can call cheers

On the cable that connects to the cluster one end is the +12v for the lights. Can't remember which but think its No1 and black in colour use a multimeter to make sure you have 12v there when lights turned on.

will give it a try thanks

Grey / blue or Grey wire [later cars] supplies the panel lights  

Get your head in the fuze box and look for a blown fuze , later cars had a fuze for this ! Do your rear number plate lights work ? Linked .

Headlamp switch ?    

 

no blown fuses and th number plate lights work

fixed the problem the loom connection at the back of the clocks was not making a connection a bit of fiddleing fixed it