I helped my neighbor change his starter yesterday. After the new one was in we found the cluster would not come on, no odometer, nothing.
I connected my scan tool on a PC and saw the engine operation all OK. Before we started tearing stuff apart I thought I would come here and ask for tips.
He told me that the cluster would act weird before the starter smoked. During the starter change we disconnected the negative side of the battery.
All fuses test good under hood and interior fuse panel.

After some searching around for similar issues we checked the ground on the battery tray. Aha! That was the problem.