Arghghg! Reverse light, still!!

Hi all,

I posted recently about a problem with my reverse lights - 1983 petrol county. I still can't find the damn wire at the cab! It's really strange as it was connected (because it was working) but clearly it's become disconnected at some stage. It's a Green/Brown wire and I know I've got the right one - where the loom comes in from the back to the engine bay, I've connected a positive to the wire and it lights up. This is then connected into a block of three next to a larger block, with the fog light. It then goes into the cab in a taped loom, still Green and Brown but then doesn't reappear!! It's so frustrating. Has anyone got even the vaguest idea where it could be? Does it go somewhere unexpected? The diagram has it going straight to the switch with the live coming from the headlamps, apparently.... Headache with this one now... I know there is a possibility of cut wires etc but the taped loom looks untampered so I think it's unlikely and as I say, it used to work so must have been connected!

Hi
Do your reversing lights work by separate switch in cab or by switch on gearbox ie reverse gear selection. If the latter I would start at the gearbox switch. It may have simply come loose and out of adjustment.

Thanks for the reply. Just a manual switch in the dash...

Are you able to see if you have voltage on the switch terminals ie Tester/Meter. Should be 12v on one of the wires on the switch with ignition on, you can also test that the switch makes ie 12v on both wires. If no voltage at all have they taken the supply from one of the spare fuses under steering wheel. I'm afraid I do not have wiring diagram for your model.

There's no connection to the switch - that's the bit I'm missing. It's had a Raptor dash fitted at some point so there's been a bit of carving up. When I took it apart, there was a connecting lead but it wasn't connected to anything... I've a few wiring diagrams but none of them seem exactly right. It's on the year of change over to Stage 1 / 90 so it's a bit of a guessing game. The closest diagram shows a green/brown wire going from the lamp straight to the switch. The closest I have is the connecting terminal block as the harness goes into the cab. What happens to this little wire from there is beyond me!!

Why would reverse light be fed from headlights , do you only reverse at night?
Should be supplied from ignition live to switch then to light.
Does it go via a fuse .

Blackburn said:

Why would reverse light be fed from headlights , do you only reverse at night?
Should be supplied from ignition live to switch then to light.
Does it go via a fuse .

Click to expand...

Yes, you're right on that one...

Mark Frewin said:

Hi
Do your reversing lights work by separate switch in cab or by switch on gearbox ie reverse gear selection. If the latter I would start at the gearbox switch. It may have simply come loose and out of adjustment.

Click to expand...

Problem solved! It doesn't have a switch on the gearbox, but you writing this jogged my memory to something. I recalled that there were two "random" wires under the insulation covers, that I noticed years ago doing something else. These were red and black, and because it's had a fair bit of electrical chopping due to various later additions, and LPG, I thought it was something to do with that and didn't investigate further. Turns out today that those actually plugged into a delightful green and a green and brown wire - the reverse wires! They must have become disconnected at some point. For some reason, instead of following the main loom in, somebody has brought them out in front of the bulkhead and under the floor panel (actually very precariously), and then they ran up the back of the bulk head into the raptor dash area. I've no idea why they took this route, other than possibly having a plan to fit a gearbox switch for reverse (have just checked and definitely nothing there).

Anyway, after much head scratching and swearing, I've put the wires back with the main look and through the grommet with the others. Connected back up to the switch and hey presto, have a reverse light again! Many thanks to those that helped and indeed on the previous post but particularly to Mark for saying the right words to remind me!