Disco Reversing Light Problem

Hello All

I have a problem which developed last night. I put my Disco into reverse gear to pull out of a car park and noticed that there was no resistance when moving the gear stick over into the reverse position. i checked again and found it had no resistance at all. Ok i got home ok but found that my reversing lights are on all the time no matter what gear i am in. This sounds to me and i am hoping that something has stuck, limit switch, or something.
Its ok to drive but you have to be really careful when selecting first gear now as due to the lack of resistance you can easily put it into reverse.

Can anyone please give me some advise as to how to maybe rectify this myself or is it a bigger job which will need a mechanic to deal with.

Look forward to hearing from you all

Regards

Spencer

if there's no resistance then a spring or something aslike has broke that holds the gate in place to stop you getting reverse by accident,but could be very wrong as we've got an auto, much better on the left leg .

Had very similar symptoms on ours (91/92 200TDi) when we first got it (except the reversing light switch was totally chuffed anyway).

Go to Land Rover (or another, cheaper, supplier if you can find one) and order a a new pair of gear selector springs for the gear selector (and maybe the nylon railco bush) and replace them whether the old ones look broken or not. Worked on ours.

Job is easy to do as it's all from inside the car (essentially remove centre consol, drill out rivets holding rubber gaitor moulding in place, remove it and shims/plates on top of gear and transfer box selectors, and remove the bits needed from the gear selector. Haynes manual doesn't cover this, so you'll need the Land Rover manuals.

Only thing is I've never been able to (or rather work out how to) adjust the gear selection "quality" to what I'd hope for (no better or worse than before, but obviously not right. Might have something to do with the rubber gasket and shims being various broken/missing on ours...

Malcolm

Edited for dubious spelling...

Oh and your reverse light switch might be pretty much permanently stuck in the "closed" position.

Bet it's corroded anyway, so probably easier to get an aftermarket one and replace regardless (think they are about a tenner at LR specialists).

Malcolm

Thanks for all the advice

May i just add its my first time on one of these Land Rover forums and i have been very impressed by the quick response and more improtantly the friendly attitude by all.

Thanks once again

Regards

Spencer

Forgot one thing re. the reversing light switch.

It's not directly actuated by the gear lever. There's a sprung plunger that the gear lever pushes in when you elect reverse. That in turn pushes the reverse light switch's plunger. Looking at the diagram on the Land Rover CD/workshop manual will make this statement comprehendible.

Ours was jammed in the "on" position. I soaked it for a few hours in an unsavoury mixture of petrol, white spirit and whatever else was to hand and regularly doused it in WD40 and tried forcing it to work again before dunking it back in the bucket of solvent.

Eventually, after much persuasion and swearing, it popped back and has worked perfectly ever since (it's meant to be stiffly sprung by the way). I greased it thoroughly before refitting obviously.

Still suspect you'll need a new reversing light switch as ours was utterly corroded and the terminals fell off as I disconnected the wires.

You need to refit the switch quite carefully as it has to be screwed in "just so". See the manual for the exact procedure.

Cheers,

Malcolm