Reverse lights, from start to finish

Ok, so my Eski gets ever closer to registration.

I decided to tackle the reverse lights, which have not worked since I bought the car a year ago. I was told at the time that the reverse light wire got pinched during the installation of the Type 9, I now have more information (based on my visual inspection) that the reverse light switch was fairly well smashed during the installation of the gearbox.



Unfortunately, the plug to the reverse gear switch seems to be gone as well. I have one solitary lead inside the cabin at the gear selector hole which seems to be an earth? I would have thought it would source the earth thru the gearbox.

The type 9 reverse switch looks like this on ebay, which I am about to order:



My questions are:

Does the reverse switch earth through the gearbox? If so, what are the two contacts for?

Does the wire from the reverse light switch go through the gear selector hole into the cabin, or along the underside of the car and in through the firewall?

If I can't find any wire/plug for the reverse switch (which seems likely so far I have looked all over the area), does anyone know where I can buy the plug to suit the switch, new or used? I can wire it in myself.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Went through this same thing a few month back.

Yes the reverse lights are +ve and earth back via the gearbox switch. The orginal four speed just has the one connector. My type 9 (like yours) has the two poles. I simply took the wire running under the passenger seat through the tunnel onto one pole and made a second lead off the second pole back into a handy screw for an earth point. I found a 2 x bullet style crimp connector worked fine as a connection (I did put a bend in them)

Hope that helps!

Paul.

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulMk1

Went through this same thing a few month back.

Yes the reverse lights are +ve and earth back via the gearbox switch. The orginal four speed just has the one connector. My type 9 (like yours) has the two poles. I simply took the wire running under the passenger seat through the tunnel onto one pole and made a second lead off the second pole back into a handy screw for an earth point. I found a 2 x bullet style crimp connector worked fine as a connection (I did put a bend in them)

Hope that helps!

Paul.

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Yes it does help, brilliant. Thanks.

quote:

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Originally posted by Avon

Just make sure you work out which terminal is which before putting gearbox back into position! Type 9 is a tight fit on Mk2 Manual gearbox tunnel and requires gearbox to be lowered to do pretty much anything to dop with the reverse switch thingy. Probably depends on how the box has been installed though.

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Bugger, I was hoping to do it in situ. Thanks for the tip.

Yeah, I already knew that but thanks for pointing it out anyhow, especially if someone else needs the info later on!

Just waiting on parts to arrive now. For some reason I don't have 12V at either terminal of the reverse lights (I assume the inside contact would be the 12V but I checked both), so it's something to also sort out while I wait for the new switch to arrive.

Escorts and electrics, a match made in heaven. [88]