betcha havent heard about these in a while--reverse lights

[0to60n10minutes]

hellllllo everyone, i have another problem with my car, and ive actually done SOME research on it, the reverse lights. if anyone is familiar with the 901 (i think) tail tranny, there is a small white plug like....plug....screwed in the drivers side of the tranny, right after the cv joint. the previous owner cut the wires coming out, and the haynes doesnt give a very good wiring diagram, that describes where the wires go. does anyone know
---i can get a pic if need also..thanks you guys.

[Rouser]

The tranny switch runs in-line, completing the circuit; no (+) or (-) (i.e. polarity) to deal with. It doesn't ground through the switch; touch the two wires together and ZAP!, reverse lights. Just insert one lead into one post hole, the other lead into the other, throw it into reverse and PRESTO!, reverse lights on command.

Mind you, that's assuming the switch is working properly. There is a pin (looks almost like a drill bit) that gets activated by the tranny's internals.

[0to60n10minutes]

wait so all i have to do is take some wire and hook one wire to one light and the other wire to the other light, and the machanism in the tranny moves the swiitch, and the lights work...no power!!! OH YEAH

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

There should be two grey/brown wires that come out of the 12-pin connector at the right-rear of the relay board. Those two wires would, in a stock 914, run to the backup light switch on the transmission. They would have "bullet" connectors on the ends which plug into the switch--though you can usually make do with just jamming the bare ends of the wire in there. (For a while.)

The circuit goes through the relay board into the main wiring harness, which has wires going to "switched power" and to the lights themselves.

Find those two wires coming from the relay board (the 12-pin connector, remember) and hook them to the switch. Your lights ought to work then.

--DD

[0to60n10minutes]

thanks you guys for the reply's. they help tremendously + my friend has a reference car!!

anyway i checked the 12 pin connector and to my suprise there are no brown/grey wires coming out of the connector. all of the wires coming out either go to the starter or the coil. ---soooo my good bd nick and I checked the voltage between the pins, until we found two pins side by side that, when the ignition was on, created no voltage.

so heres my problem, i dont know if the rev. lights go on only if the engine is on or not, so i dont know what pin(s) go to that reverse switch in the tranny.

any thoughts?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

"Use the wiring diagram, Luke!"

The two wires in question, as you can see, connect to the right-front pin on the 12-pin connector, and the pin just aft of that one. (Pin #2 and pin #4.) I believe the appropriate pin only gets power when the ignition is on. And it doesn't matter which way around you hook the wires, because all the switch does is short the two wires together.

--DD