I was going to reply saying the same thing. My 98 G Voyager has had an
intermittent problem with the cluster going completely dead, and it didn't
affect the way the van ran at all. I opened up the power centre under the
hood and cleaned it out (it was very dirty) and that seemed to fix the
cluster problem, as well as made the van run better.

The bad solder joint is the ground for the cluster. I'm an electronics
tech. When you have a bad ground, strange things can happen, I can
assure you. Lines that OUGHT to be at ground can then have 12V on them.
That's a different situation than a totally disconnected cluster.  As
you surely know, the instrument cluster communicates with the PCM and
BCM, which CAN keep the car from starting. Maybe it's as simple as
putting a steady 12V on the communication bus, keeping the PCM and BCM
from communicating.

That said,  I don't have any experience with this problem, but when I
was diagnosing my bad PCM I searched the internet for similar problems.
I ran across an extensive thread on this bad ground problem. A lot of
people responded saying they had this bad ground problem too, and they
confirmed it by pounding on the dash. Unfortunately, it didn't help me,
my PCM was faulty. However, the instrument cluster self-test did
confirm that my PCM wasn't communicating with the instrument cluster.

I saved part of the text from that thread, I'll paste it below. A lot
of happy people said this solved their problem, so I'm a believer.
-Paul

Sometimes my van won't start and run but then minutes to hours later it
is fine. These are the things that happen: 97 T&c Intermittant Dash
Display And Stalls, Need help with codes 12,66,55 intermittent start
problem '98 Caravan Sport

1. Put key in, van starts and there is no trouble.

2. Put key in, turn key and have no power to fuel gauge, speedometer,
tach, temperature gauge, gear indicator, odometer. All the indicators
in the top panel: check engine, ABS, Alarm, etc. function properly; van
will "start" but dies the instant I let go of the key.

3. Put key in, no gauges, same as #2, van starts and continues to run
and all gauges come to life (this is the least frequent)

4. Driving along and lose power to the gauges. Van continues to run
without problem - just don't have any idea how fast I'm going.
Sometimes the gauges come back to life while I'm driving.

Usually if it won't run, as in #2, and I continue to try it again and
again (maybe 5 to 6 times) eventually when I turn the key nothing
happens - doesn't try to start, doesn't click, doesn't grind - NOTHING!
It doesn't seem to happen more or less when it rains; but it did occur
less frequently during the winter. Now that it is warming up it is
starting again.

Re: intermittent start problem '98 Caravan Sport Well everyone I am
glad to hear that my little dash bashing is getting everyone going
again. I took my cluster out of the car in April and had it repaired.
There were two problems first two bad diodes and the second was a
conection at the plug.

If the gauges come up the car will start. I can hit hard enough that it
works, my wife can't. If this works your printed circuit board of you
instument cluster has a short. The car will run without the cluster,
but if you have a factory alarm the starter cut off goes into effect or
the car computer thinks that the car is in gear.

Mine would also do the dash on / dash off while driving, but as you can
see from the posts it also had the starting proble, anyway...., back in
the beginning of October I went ahead and pulled the cluster out (very
simple, maybe took 15 min), on the back of the circuit board of the
cluster where the main connector solders on to the board there are
perhaps 12 solder connections for the plug pins, people had mentioned
to look for cracked or cold solders at those locations especially at
the black wire connections (there are two) I didnt find any cracked
solders however I decided to re-solder them anyway when I heated one of
the black wire pin connections the cold solder joint was exposed, for
all intents and purposes it was barely even making contact, it was more
of a dome of solder, I finished soldering it back up and reinstalled
the cluster, to date i have not had any repeats of either the starting
or on / off of the cluster (knock on wood).

My son had a similar problem with his (my old) 94 Concorde-just up and
died on the interstate. Having looked under the hood a few weeks
before, I warned him that the battery terminals were corroded and
needed attention badly. It was my first reaction that this is what had
caused his problem (engine died, wouldn't turn over or even click the
solenoid but lights worked). He was skeptical but we had AAA tow it
home, we put new cable ends on, cleaned the battery terminals and it
fired right up. It was obvious that the battery was weak and he
replaced it about a week later. Hope it's that simple for you.