Mystery connection on back of instrument cluster

[mckpaul]

Well, pulled the instrument cluster out last night and cleaned it all up and re-lamped it. But don't understand what one of the connections was on the back. On the upper right corner of the cluster housing (when viewing the cluster from the front - in other words, passenger side on the back up high) there was a connection of a black plastic looking cord for lack of a better word. At first I thought it was a small hard plastic tube, then I thought it was a wire since it had a copper sleeve on the end of it and went to it's own special white plastic (or teflon) connector that kind of looked like one of the instrument lamp sockets, but it wouldn't twist out, and had a metal tab holding it in place. But when I got it detached from the cluster it appeared to be nothing more than a solid plastic cord. I followed it to see where it went and it just went to the ash tray housing and connected to the top of that, kind of stubbed into the ashtray bay about 1/16". I put it back like I found it when I finished, but what the heck is this?????

[TROYLV]

it is a fiber optic cable for the ash tray light.

[mckpaul]

You've got to be kidding!!!! Well, duh...makes sense now. I've had the truck for two years, but hasn't been roadworthy yet so I haven't driven it, only recently since I've got it running have I been going out for short runs getting bugs out, not inspected or tagged yet. And the dash lights haven't been working, just got them on last night. And being a non-smoker, I could have driven this thing for months and not noticed any light in the ashtray bay. Guess I would have discovered it by accident some day and the light would have went on in my head... (no pun intended)

Thanks for the info!