Backup lights no worky

[bigblock44k5]

After finishing putting my clutch and twin stick in and putting everything together i dicovered my backup lights dont work. I dont remember if they work right before if i took everything apart, just noticed after. the bulbs look fine, but i put the tranny in reverse with truck off and pulled the wire off the tranny and tried grounding it to bypass the tranny switch and i blew a fuse. i thought the wire was just a ground? i guess it obviously had power going through it to blow the fuse, but where does the power go after it goes into the tranny? thanks for the input.

 

[Okiemuddog]

IIRC, the reverse light switch has powerr in and when put in reverse, the switch completes the circuit sending power to the lights. I would get a cheap test light, put your rig in reverse with the key on and check the out wire to make sure you have power from the switch to the lights, if you power there than you already know you have power inbecause you blew the fuse, That would narrow it down to being the switch itself or the wiring in between the switch and the lights. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

 

[bigblock44k5]

my reverse light swith on the tranny only has one wire and one plug. how does it get to the reverse lights after going in the tranny?

 

[Okiemuddog]

One plug and one wire as in two connections? I assume you mean it has one wire connected to the switch total, if that is the case then the switch should form the ground for the lights IIRC, that means that they are like dome lights, they are a hot circuit waiting to be grounded to complete the circuit, that would explain why it blew the fuse when you grounded it, probably caused a voltage spike in the the circuit, IMHO, I would start by getting a new switch and try that before trying to chase wires.