Dashboard gauges intermittent, now don’t work

[Eparker]

Hi everyone,
I have a 1995 Rinker festiva vee, 5.7 mercruiser.
Gauges (votlmeter, fuel, oil pressure, engine temp) have been intermittent this year. I have always been
been able to easily restore power to them by shaking the cables that attach to the starter. Now that doesn’t restore them.
So I removed 3 of the 4 cables from the starter, (the 3 that attach to the main terminal, one of which is the battey cable) checked and cleaned connectors and reconnected. Still nothing.
What do those cables go to? Which one of them would bring power to the dash so that I can better focus my attention?
thanks!

 

[Chris1956]

Your gauges are daisy chained together. Each gauge has a ground, power, some kind of signal and possibly night lights.

Since they are either on or off, it is likely the ground or power connection is dirty or loose, since they are common to all.

The grounds would usually come from some sort of buss bar, likely on the fuse panel. Power would come from the ignition switch. Nightlight power would normally come from the fuse panel, via a navigation switch.

You could go under the dash and have someone watch the gauges, and tell you when you are shaking the right wire.....