well I was going through all the connections with a voltage/continuity tester.. grounds were good.. on one of the terminals with the continuity tester I heard a relay clicking really hard over on the passenger side - and now the instrument cluster works! doesnt make sense to me.. the only relays over there are the horn, cigar, rear window, and a/c blower motor. However the rear window relay is linked to the instrument cluster, but I'm not sure how that would cause all the gauges to not work.