Instrument cluster issues

[vegetablelasagna]

Yesterday I pulled my instrument cluster to replace the broken odometer gear in my auto 1991 240. After I got everything out back together I leave the table for a moment to grab a beverage and hear a big crash. My cat thought it would be hilarious to push my instrument cluster right off the table onto the hardwood floor. There were gears and small bits and pieces everywhere.


Luckily, most of the broken pieces seem to have come from the clock. Which to me, is the best of bad outcomes. I don’t really like the clock where it is and was already planning on replacing it with a tachometer. Besides cosmetically the clock looks fine, it’s just non operational now.

So I give everything a look over and install the cluster again. Now the overdrive light is constantly on, but constantly flickering. Car seems to be shifting into all 4 gears just fine, I know I can just pull the bulb. But the 2 instrument bulbs at the top of the cluster are not working now. It may have been a little too bright out to tell but I don’t think the gear selector backlight is working either. Which is controlled by the rheostat along with cluster illumination.

I’m assuming the circuit board took some damage with that drop. I have a few amber colored LED strips kicking around so I was wondering, if I have power at the rheostat could I just splice in for the LED strip there and install them where the old non working cluster lights are? If so, I can jump from there to under the gear selector.

Anyone want to chime in tell me if that would or wouldn’t be an issue? Only thing I could think it blowing a fuse but I don’t need to be too bright just enough for some illumination