Just did a tranny swap and realized I didn't see a backup light switch anywhere. Low and behold my backup lights don't even work, never did since I've had the truck. Anybody know where the switch is located... it's an '82 F250XL with 302 and C6 trans. 2WD.


Thanks a bunch!

 

On the side of the tranny, right where the lever comes out on the driver's side. The switch is a plastic piece that bolts to the side of the tranny, and is actually hollow in the middle so it can slip up over the lever shaft. Yours should have 4 wires. 2 for the neutral safety, and 2 for the back-up lights.

 

OK that's what I figured, but here's the deal... The trans in my truck - that switch only has 2 wires. And the plug that the lead goes too only has two wires. The trans I just put in had the 4-wire switch that you speak of, but I swapped it out with my 2-wire one because the plug from the truck's wiring harness only has two. I hope that makes sense.

So I'm stumped.

 

Well, you probably do not know the whole story of this truck. And believe me, I have been around some guys that do wacky things.

Your truck in a previous life could have been a manual tranny truck.

The wiring harness got changed sometime.

It doesn't have the original cab.

This is what I would do. First, look at the wiring near the rear of the truck on the driver's side. Somewhere you hopefully can find a black wire with a pink stripe. This is the wire that feeds the back-up lights.

Follow this wire down the driver's side frame rail, and up near the front it should end up in a plug somewhere. Hopefully if you find the plug, it will also have a purple/orange wire with it. The purple orange is the power supply for the back-up lights.

If everything is going well so far, you can put the 4 wire switch back on, and the red/blue wires hook up as they did before, and you can use the extra two wires to hook the back-up lights to.

How all the plugs are going to work will depend on what you find. You could possibly go to the junyard and get a 4 wire plug, or just get slip on crimp connectors and plug them in that way.

If you find the back-up light wire going to the rear, but it has been cut off or something, and you can find a power supply for the back-up lights, you may have to run a new wire up from the tranny to the firewall, and run through to the fuse box to get power for the lights.

 

Wow. You've got my vote for forum member of the year! I really appreciate you taking the time to reply in such depth. Your theory makes sense as evident by the way they hack-jobbed the Holly 4bbl conversion... for some reason I hadn't even considered that. I'm not a mechanical/electrical idiot by any means so it is definately do-able to figure this out... if I only could find the TIME!

Anyway, thanks again for steering my in the right direction.

 

hi guys i have the same problem in my truck but its always been an auto and both are 2 wirethe neutal switch andwere it conects
in my 80 bronco

 

I do not know in where the back-up switch would be in that case. Really, the only other place it could be would be the steering column area. The only one I am familiar with is in this link.

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d800a746c.jsp

 

hi guys i got it to work its in the neuteal switch i just hard wired two of the 4 wires what you do is put the truck in reverse and turn the key on then u will get power to them and your back up ligths will go on when they are conneted and the 4 wire plug is for a manuel but u cant get the 2 wire for an automatic