The starter problem is most likely to do with the brushes, though you may have an electrical problem and/or a starter relay problem. GoJeep did a good writeup on starter R&R.
Always pull the battery cables from the battery and clean them up good with a round wire brush or sand paper first. Check the battery ground at the dipstick holder and clean it up. Get all the oil off and if need be remove it and wire brush everything and tighten it.
if the starter doesn't turn over, always jiggle the shift handle a little and/or try a start in neutral. The neutral safety switch does get corroded.
Your speedometer is a spring like mechanical cable from the transfer to the gage, nothing electrical to go wrong. Most often the cable breaks after a long period of watching the needle in your speedometer jump around for months or a cable sleeve end comes unscrewed.
The dash lights have two fuses, on is the parking lamp fuse the other the illum fuse. One or the other may be burnt out. If the fuses are OK, it's most likely your headlight switch. In rare cases the cable rubs through between the headlight switch or the fuse box and the instrument cluster.
When trying to jump the starter you may have burnt up a fusible link, there are four near the starter relay. Though if a fusible link goes, you would likely have multiple system failures and a whole lot of stuff would stop working.
