QuestionYou were so helpful with my relay issue I wanted to asked another question. I don't have backup lights, never have since Ive owned her. I am sure there has to be some sort of plunger or contact in the gear shift area to energize them. The lamps are good. Any ideas of what to look at first and if there is a contact for reverse gear where is it located?
AnswerHi Al. Yes, there is a switch on the right hand (USA = passenger) side of the gearbox, high up and difficult to reach. You could do a test of the switch with an ohm meter without crawling around under the car.
Look for a small piece of wiring loom that starts somewhere between the fusebox and the heater box, and disappears under the car. It only has 3 wires in it. One of them is Yellow. The other two operate the reversing lights. They are plain green, and green with a brown stripe. If you pull the bullet connectors out of the green ones, you can test the switch with an ohm meter. It should be open circuit, but if you put the gear lever into reverse, then it should drop to almost zero ohms. If it stays open circuit, then the switch is probably faulty. The gearbox switch screws into the side of the gearbox remote extension, and it has the same two green wires attached to it. Look upwards under the gearbox tunnel, and see if one of the wires has fallen off.
If the switch is working OK, then test the main loom to the rear of the car. The two wires that you pulled should have a resistance of one ohm or less, because there are two 21-watt bulbs across them. Quite often, the bulbs are corroded, or the tiny connectors are corroded, or the earth wires are not properly grounded.
Let me know what you find.
