I’ve got an 86’ 745 GLE non-turbo and ever since I’ve had it the instrument panel lights did not work, I suspected the dimmer rheostat thingamajigger and pulled that in hopes of finding one. Following a friend had an 87 745 GLE non-turbo get hit in the rear and was totaled by the insurance company, this past weekend we installed the instrument panel from the 87 into my 86 as the 87 was slightly different in appearance on the rear, all the gauges were the same; fuel, tach, speedo, temp and clock. The tach, speedo and clock work perfectly it appears, the fuel gauge doesn’t move except a smidgen when you turn the key on and the temp gauge just keeps making its way all the way into the red and you can also get it there quicker if you pump the gas. I pulled the dimmer switch from the 87 in hopes of it working on the 86 panel, it fit with some monkeying but once installed in the car it didn’t work. So I put the dimmer switch back onto the 87 panel, and decided to see if I could swap the fuel guage and temp gauge, no luck they are completely different, the 86’s temp and fuel really only have the little rheostat? And the 87’ has resistors, the rheostat and and a bunch of other stuff. The 87’s gauges worked when pulled from the car so I’m 99% sure they work. My question is 2 fold I guess, 1) if wired properly can the 87 fuel and temp work in my 86 and 2) if so, then how or what must I do to get them working because its really nice having panel lights. Or 3) should I just keep looking for an 86 instrument panel with a working dimmer switch.

Thanks

George