I have been getting an intermittent no bus message since July or so. It had went away until my hunting trip last week. When it happens I of course lose all my gauges, but I can pick them up on my ScanGage2 through the OBD port. It seemed to happen on rough road so out of curiousity I tapped, or more like punched  the cluster and everything came back up. This happened a few times. Since I can read speed, tach, etc. through the OBD port when the dash goes blank is it safe to assume that the problem is a loose cluster? Just trying to narrow it down before I start the long drawn out testing process.

Yeah I'm going to bet loose cluster. I'm pretty sure there was a TSB for cluster related no bus issue too.

I had similar situation a few years ago, turned out that it was the main plug in the PDC was loose, I just had to re set it, but be carefull when checking it is easy to over torque. Just got to do it by feel.

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Yeah I'm going to bet loose cluster. I'm pretty sure there was a TSB for cluster related no bus issue too.

Any idea what the fix was? I'm gonna make sure the screws are tight but if it's a bad connection I don't know what to do.

Take the fours screws out that hold the cluster in  and just unplug it by pulling straight out. You can then see the connectors. 2 will be in the dash and mate with the 2 in the cluster. 

Gotcha. I've been there already. But what to do if those connections are loose?

I would think you just check and be sure the connections are not dirty or corroded and the dash mounts are secure. It would be nice to see a TSB on the issue to know what the problem might be.

Maybe apply a little chicken grease? Sorry.

 

I seem to remember over the years a place where TSB's were listed for our trucks. Was that on this site or somewhere else? Or was I just dreaming again?

http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/08-05-00.htm

 

Found...

gAhhh, Geno's. I keep forgetting them. 1.3 hrs and done. Barely enough time for 3 beers 

Geno's is just a vendor.

 

dodgeram.info.

A few years back I was getting the "no bus" issue on my 01. I had found a lot of bus issues were related to loose cluster in Chrysler vehicles so out of curiosity I pulled the cluster to inspect and found nothing out of the ordinary. I reinstalled the cluster and haven't had any bus issues since. All I can figure was a loose electrical connection to the cluster before removing it.