Just got the car running again for the first time in 14 years, oil pressure gauge was not working (I think this has something to do with the ground that went to the clutch master cyl in the engine bay to the sensor?) , everything else seemed to be functioning. Was not able to test speedometer.

As part of ongoing repair process, I removed the dash to get access to the heater core for a repair.

Putting everything back in, plugged everything back in, power car on, and the coil spring that returns the speedometer gauge gets red hot, melted the gauge face, and several of the odometer numbers. Not super worried about that, I do have a second dash cluster for parts. I removed its face in case, and it is doing same thing, so I feel if I can fix it on the ruined one, it will work on the one that is still good. For both now, power on, the spring starts to glow red hot, so powered off.

Whatever is causing it is something between the white plug and the speedometer cable being plugged into the back.

Previous owner had some vampire clips off of a wire (yellow with blue stripe wire) that just led to nowhere. When I removed the dashboard there was also a grounding wire (gray in color) attached to one of the bolts that holds the steering column up, but it also terminated to nothing. Not sure if due to the age of the vhecle that something broke and I am missing something somewhere.

Not sure where to start looking at this. The wiring harness says the yellow with blue stripe goes to the coils if I am reading it correct? (scribe pointing at what previous owner had a wire that just ended not connected to anything)

I am not sure what the (me) and (f) mean after the wire colors on this image either