A few backlights on my 2000 SSEi instrument have stopped working. First, the light behind the fuel guage went out, now the poblem has taken over about 25% of the cluster. I pulled the cluster out hoping to find replaceable bulbs, but I guess the unit wasn't designed that way. Does anyone know how to repair an instrument cluster, or do I have to replace it?

The lights are led'* cannot be changed, they last forever so I think its a ground problem after the connector for the IPC. the Black and the Black/White are the ground wires, pins A8 and A2 of Connector C2. Carefull this is a flat wire connector and will not take much force.
Also try dimming the lights up and down, do the remaining ones dim? If this still does nothing then take to the shop for a Instrument Cluster Diagnostic System Check.

The remaining lights dim OK. Most of my problem seems to be on the left side of the cluster. If there is a ground problem as suggested, would it be with the left-side connector? Is that "C2"? I also thought about spraying all the connections with contact cleaner, but I was worried about creating a short.

C2 is the larger connector having 16 pins, C1 has only 12 pins. The 'A' series is on top . far right of the connector is A8 black/white. A2 is second one in from the left, black.

Man Dad, where do you get this stuff?

He is a Gearhead...they have magic powers

I have connections (no pun intended).
If you think about this its crappy that you have to change out the whole cluster cause a few back lights went out? poor design to say the least? I made a call to the service dept to make sure and yup they said you have to change the whole thing out.

Yeah, that'* what i found out too. No way to replace a stupid ten cent light bulb. Instead, they want to to drop X hundred bucks to replace a perfectly good cluster. Go figure.