Clock tied in with charging system operation????

[BoxxerSix]

I "was" have a frustrating issue with my 965 where the gauge fuse would keep blowing out and the car was not charging the battery. Had the alternator rebuilt and new regulator installed and it still didn't charge. Got frustrated with the charge issue and decided to tackle the dash issue as per AFJuvat's ground idea.

I took all the gauges out and tried a new fuse and it didn't pop. I then intstalled each gauge back into the dash one by one to try and isolate which one was causing the short and after getting all five back in and hooked up, the fuse no longer blew out and the car started charging the battery?!?!?!?

So since I truley do not know exactly what was causing the problems on my car I'm curious to know if the clock(with the battery warning light) is tied in some way to the charging system that would prevent the regulator from working properly?? I don't have the wiring diagrams for this car and have nothing to trace this with.

BTW, after the problem seemed to fix itself i took the gauges back out and looked for chaffed wiring harnesses/loose grounds behind the dash and found nothing. Also none of the gauge terminals/connections showed any signs of corrosion or shorting out.

I hate problems that just fix themselves without knowing what went wrong.....