Just wanted to check if anyone else had this happen to them before I go and order bulbs or tear the dash apart again.

I removed the instrument cluster to clear the contacts and add the redundant ground wire which I hoped would solve my lazy gauges which would come and go as they pleased, adding a huge ground wire and screwing it right into the inside panel of the car did work, gauges came back and more accurately reflected the parameters they are supposed to show - however after putting everything back together my gauge lights are so dim I'd have to hallucinate just to see anything properly at night. If it were a power supply issue why do the blinkers or Parking light seem brighter but these don't? I carefully wiped everything with electrical cleaner and put all the screws back in, I don't see how all my bulbs could go so dim just like that while the issue I solved worked out perfectly.

Regardless everyone should reground everything on their car it only works better when you do, this is my 4th extra ground and it works great.

 

Different power supply; the panel illumination bulbs are powered off the the headlight switch, via the dimmer rheostat

You probably just have a poor connection somehwere

A really easy place to begin would be the dimmer rheostat itself. Bypass the stat (by removing all the wires and bridging them together) and see if your cluster bulbs return to normal brightness

Can't have too many grounds !

Cheers
DD