So, when I was de-winterizing my speedster last month I replaced the battery. It has 2 negative cables attached to the battery and 1 positive cable. I forgot to hook up the second negative cable. Turned my battery switch on, no lights on my cluster and no beeping. I put my key on, still no light or beeps, pressed the start switch and my engine started. My cluster WAS NOT lighted up and I never got a beep. The 2 negative cables are:
one for engine ground
and one for the "console ground buss block", which is under the dash.
The point I'm trying to make is my cluster (or anything under the dash) did not have a ground path and did not work but my engine still started.
I would think your purple wire should have battery voltage. I wonder what reading is with the + lead on the purple wire and the - lead on the battery neg? That purple wire is supplied +12 from connector A pin 11 on the fuse block. The purple wire splits between the fuse block and the cluster to supply +12 to the beeper and a depth gauge (if equipped). Is the ground on the beeper switching? The other 2 wires on the cluster plug come from the VCM and they carry the data from the ECM thru the fuse block and VCM to the cluster. For all its worth, I had a intermittent engine shut down and would not start back up for an hour. Also had a problem with my key not working sometimes. Bought a Candoo Pro scanner. After troubleshooting with the scanner, everybody on the Candoo forums said VCM and DESS post. Found bought used VCM and new DESS post, also bought a new cluster because mine was faded. . Did not fix it. It was the ECM. The fuse block and VCM are really just pass-through devices. All logic comes from the ECM. I believe the engine will start without the cluster having power.