OK so ive searched the archives and found quite a few posts about this problem,
when i bought the car, the guy i purchased it from had installed an aftermarket stereo and the face plate/control panel were "stolen" so, i replaced it, now when that unit was in there the dash lights all worked, however, this guy had taken a couple strips of duct tape, layed all the wires together in it and pressed them between the duct tape then wrapped the ever loving **** out of them, somehow i suspect the stereo did not work and thats why the faceplate was missing9this was not the only shotty work he had done, just the one that apparantly i cannot correctly fix on my own) anyways, back to the point of this story, theres no posts about how to actually fix the issue, after installing the new stereo, the dash lights ceased to function(except the clock light, which only works when all other lighting circuits are off) now just as i did with my 88 mode 90, i left the grey/blue wire out of the mix (beings the new stereo didnt even have a dimmer option on it) taped it up and called it good, and now the lights dont work, so i tried installing a light on that wire, that had no success, i have checked all the connections i can find with the grey/blue wire, and all seem to be in good condition, and yes my plate lights do work, i just rebuilt that harness about 8 months ago as i thought that to be the original culprit, now i have the dash in its entirety out trying to fix the problem, as it stands, the only lighting circuit i have trouble with is the one with grey/blue stripe wire as the positive, all other circuits work, however i seem to be missing some connections in there(i cannot find a wire for the rear ashtray light, dont know if the 80 came with that) and also the glove box lamp has no wiring, i think i found a bulb for it, laying on the passenger side floor, but i cannot find any wiring to run it, i also cannot find this mysterious "instrument cluster light booster" that the whole circuit is supposed to recieve power from, and the only connector i can find with all the wires that should be connected to that, is partially damaged, and is connected to nothing, has been connected to nothing, since i bought the car so, if anyone has some pointers it would be GREATLY appreciated

 

also, the bulbs are not burned out. yes i did check that. and here is a couple of the wiring diagrams so that everyone can see what i am talking about rather then trying to imagine the system in your head

 

ok update, i cannot find the instrument light booster, because it was not equipped on this version(missed that note in a different section) apparantly this vehicle is also not equiped with an interior light control relay.
i have also found that i have no direct short to ground(removed all bulbs on grey/blue wire and ohmmed it out, open line, add a bulb, and we have resistance) i have done this with all bulb connections and tried shifting the wiring around with that bulb connected, as such i have found a few breaks in the wiring and repaired those. still no interior lights when i switch them on, there are a few bulbs that i know are burned out(1 IC lamp and a couple of bulbs in my control switches in center console) however, beings it lacks any form of control that i can find, this should not cause the rest of the system to not work? also, i checked for voltage, switch off position is 0 volts, as should be expected, but in either of the on positions, it ranges from 15.2-28.5 Mv, any idea's?

 

ohk new update, no matter what i change the voltage never changes from the 13.7-17.2 MV range whether the switch is off, mid, full on (after repairing a mangled wire in the trunk that i had previously taped up to cover the exposed wiring) now, can someone tell me where the light delay control is so i can trace back to that and see if maybe thats the problem? cause im running out of idea's here, my column switches seem to be fully functional, and again im at a loss as to why the clock light would shut off when i switch the lights to go on(headlights, foglights, and plates lights all work)