My 1984 sportswagon is digital dashboard is basically blank. Any ideas on what is a common fault? Starting it this evening (it is been sitting for a month), churning the engine over and over, occasionally the dashboard lit up, so it CAN light up still.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Pete

Now I'd say 23 years of vibration an temperature change. They were pretty decent when they came out.
It is probably just a connection. If it is external you could just unhook and re-connect all the harnesses one at a time to clean the connection. If that does not work it is probably internal to the unit, wire or solder connection, in which case you are probably screwed.