I know Matt's car a bit, he's had it for maybe 30 years.
It was converted from AT to the Tremec several years back and has been driven a fair amount since.
But IIRC it does sit for periods of time in his home garage.
That tells me something has changed or deteriorated.
I've had a starter relay with a loose terminal that would occasionally no-start; wiggle the connection, and it would work.
Matt, look at the other end/connection of whatever grounded the relay before, including the wire itself.
Could even be a faulty replacement relay, ground shouldn't be carrying 12V, right ?
Dash lights: so the dimmer rheostat works the A/M gauge lighting OK, but not the cluster lamps ?
I'd look at whatever the different routing for those two is, including the big connector at the back of the cluster circuit board.
Actually, I've had it for 23 years, but otherwise your remember correctly. It was a column shift automatic and when I installed the Tremec I used a steering column out of a 71 or 72 floor shift Duster. I agree that I think something has deteriorated. I've never had an starting issues until after this winter's hibernation, and no dash light issues either. And just to be clear, the ground wire shows battery voltage whether it is connected to the relay or hanging loose. I guess it could be a coincidence that these 2 issues developed simultaneously, but it seems weird. I guess I need to start wiggling wires and checking grounds.
