No dash lights after heater core install . . .
 

Got my new heater core in (did it the hard way by taking out the whole dash and it's every bit as horrible as I'd been led to believe) and everything works except my dash illumination. I have all three electrical connectors hooked into the instrument cluster and the gauges all work but when the lights are off the hardtop defroster light is dimly illuminated and when the parking or headlights are on the light goes completely off and none of the dash lights come on. The only thing that wasn't reinstalled exactly as it was before is a single ground that was connected originally near the driver side eyeball vent that I relocated to piece of the dash structure near the hood release. Could this be related? Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

na or nb??

if it was on the chassis and u moved the ground to the dash structure it could not be as good, but i oon't know i hate electricity

never move grounds...

The ground was originally on the dash as well, just in a really stupid point to access so I moved it. I got the illumination working by bypassing the dimmer switch though.

The dimmer switch varies the ground to working most likely when you moved the ground you disconnected it with the dimmer switch it is essential they all share the same ground.

Well, I did the jumpering and got the lights to work in the parking lights position of the switch but when I flip the headlights on the dash lights go out. Very odd and frustrating. Worse than the lights though is the fact that my hardtop defroster no longer works which compromises visibility at times.

So, before I go ahead and rip out the god-forsaken dash again which I'd really like to avoid as it's rather unpleasant (not to mention, why would moving the ground from one part of the dash structure to another matter), I was doing some research on the forum and one person said he had two clips that fit the dimmer switch and one worked for the lights and one didn't. Is this true? As I read the descriptions of how to jumper the dimmer switch connector the wire colors don't match what I'm looking at on mine and the connector has six wires whereas the dimmer switch itself only has three prongs. Would this indicate that the connector is for something else? Is it common to have "dummy" wires in the connector coming off the harness?

Sorry for the length, but I'd appreciate any help you guys might have as I'm totally dumb about electrical work.