Today's work. First up is the rogue black wire that ran from the voltage regulator to the cluster frame underneath the radio. Three strands of copper were trying to do the job.There are three major routes to the voltage regulator: the two connectors within the circuit board and (G1 20DGN), which runs to the radio's (20 R) power wire. The radio's power connector is hooked up, so that leaves me with the question: on top of the voltage reguator, as I'm looking at it mounted in the dash, is that a simple ground? If so, it's too easy to make a new ground wire and run it to a better location. Otherwise, what goes there?

Second up was removing the front seat, because at 6'3 and pushing the far end of the 200-pound range, contortion is not in my repertoire. Removing the seat, I found that the seat belt buzzer link for the seatbelt itself was not connected. Some under-carpet fishing found the connector and I hooked it back up. The buzzer worked regardless, but I have to wonder if there is a grounding effect here. Either way, I hate purposefully disconnected electronics, so that's done.

Next, I popped out the (C1 4) 12-pin connector and immediately noticed the red/white wire's flat and shallow contact bar. This is the ammeter power wire, which connects straight to the bulkhead (CE 1) port just like the ground wire.

Plan of attack: Make a new ground wire for the voltage regulator and route it to a more trustworthy ground point than the cluster cage, reassemble the functional gauges and test functionality. Will return with findings.