dash rev counter and lights problem

The rev counter, some dash lights (indicators, battery) and fuel and temp guages have stopped working on my 83 driver.

Following advice on another post i installed an extra earth cable from the brown cable in the multiplug to the metal bracket the clocks sit on behind the dash but it hasnt made any difference. Is this a good enough earthing point?

Before they stopped completely they would die intermittently and could be brought back to life with a thump on the dash so is there anything that could have worked itself loose? All wires on multiplug are firmly attached and not melted through as far as i can see. The clock works so its definately getting power. The temp guage also went a little haywire and suddenly went to max and started flashing at the time the dash died.

Any ideas on what's stopping these working?

It is more than likely that the group of failed instruments & warning lights are fed by the fourteen-contact plug. Before losing your sanity, try ensuring that the black wire - which is the power feed - has a firm connection. Another possibility is that the black plastic cage which locks the printed circuit contacts to the receiving socket could be loose or damaged. When playing with this, be careful not to damage the printed circuit.
If you have lost tacho, petrol gauge, coolant temp gauge & warning light, oil pres w/lt & buzzer, charging [alternator] w/lt & indicator w/lt, this is where to look.

Yep - go with the above - I had pretty much the same symptoms (spelling??) on my 1984/85 GTI - traced this back to a bad connection on the 14 point multi-plug - had the auto-elect guys run a bypass & no further problems - about ?50 to take the cluster put, trace the problem, sort a solution and re-install.

MP