Reverse gear lighting???

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Paul D

Paul D

Old, nackered 'n broke, but the Landy is fine . :)
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My 90 has never had a reversing light working. Well, it might have but I never noticed! So, I looked at it yesterday while sorting some other wiring, (Got my right hand indicators working properly!) and tested a few bits. There's the reverse switch on the back of the gearbox top which tests OK and which has two wires off it, but hanging in space. The reversing light unit itself works OK on test with 12v, so everything should work when the rev light switch is plugged into the loom ... but where to?

I can't find a plug within reach of the wiring from the switch, either side of the gearboxes or on top of either chassis rail ... so can anyone tell me where the connection ought to be made?
 
The wire for it is either blue or green if that helps. If it's ex-mod there will be no wiring for it. I don't have one as it's not an MOT req. I just put my workllights on when I want to reverse and most people seem to get the idea.
 
A manually-switched reversing light is a perfectly sensible idea, particularly if it doubles up as a rear worklight. To stay fully within the law, if it isn't automatically operated by reverse gear, you need a tell-tale on the dash (or illuminating switch) as a reminder that you've left it on.
 
I did this literally this weekend.

Look up on the bulkhead for a green wire with a brown trace - this is the feed that runs to the back of the chassis.

In the multiplug around that look for a solid green ignition switched 12v feed. (It might have been green and yellow trace actually but any ignition switched feed would work)

Connect the solid green wire to one side of the gearbox switch

Connect the other side of the gearbox switch to the green/brown

Now on your rear of the tub behind the covers find the other end of the green/brown wire - connect the +ve of your reverse light to this and the -ve to the earth point behind the cover of splice it into an earth off one of the other lights.

Hey presto reverse light.

You may have to make a small loom to go from switch to bulkhead

I had 2 rear fogs so changed the lens and turned one of those into a reverse light but you could easily add in another light anywhere you wanted.
 
Many thanks all .. ;)

Forgot I had a worklamp to wire in so it seems simplest to, as @flat says, wire the switch to the bulkhead and do it properly with a second switch for if I don't want the worklamp on when reversing or on separately. Appreciated .. :)
 
Paul D said:
Many thanks all .. ;)

Forgot I had a worklamp to wire in so it seems simplest to, as @flat says, wire the switch to the bulkhead and do it properly with a second switch for if I don't want the worklamp on when reversing or on separately. Appreciated .. :)
Click to expand...

You could do it all with one if you used an on-off-on switch. This could give you three switch positions e.g:
up- on with reverse gear
middle- off
down- constantly on (manual override)

I think the maximum number of reversing lights allowed on a vehicle is two. So a single worklamp and a dedicated reverse lamp would be fine. Or with two worklamps, you could wire it such that only one of them came on with reverse gear (with both coming on with the manual override) as well as the standard reverse lamp. Or you could repurpose the reverse lamp into a second fog lamp and use both work lights as reverse lights. There are many possibilities :)
 
I think if you have a manually switched rear white light you need to have an indicator of some sort in that switch for when the rear white light is on, MOT rules afaik
 
so is having 6 reversing light not legal then. i can manually switch 2 off so 4 is still not good.
 
Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations puts the maximum number at two. There's a bit of a grey area in that rear work lights are considered to be different to manually-switched reversing lights. The difference is a work light must only be used while stationary, while a reverse light can be used while moving. But if it comes on with reverse gear, it's unambiguously a reversing light.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/14/made
 
@flat good call mate, many, many thanks. Finally got around to checking it all out and your colours are spot on.

After a lot of looking, thinking and more looking .. I found them! The ignition switched green is pointed to by a blue arrow, the green and brown by a yellow arrow in both pics, right as you said up near the top of the bulkhead. Ignore the oil filter, we moved the housing to suit the 300Tdi engine better.. The ignition green had been used for something else, dunno what but I'm sure the fullness of time will tell .. I know it's correct because it 'joins' the green and brown in a sheath that was tucked out of sight!

Had to wait till now, when I have the floor out for welding the outrigger and footwell, to get room to work.

So connections made, very roughly, and the reverse light now works .. Wiring needs a good overhaul, the green lead in particular was dark, corroded inside and took some stripping back to get a decent connection, hence why it's hanging in mid air!

That's all for future, though, when I change chassis or get the whole body off .. ;)


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As a small follow-up ... now the reverse light works, so does the fog light! I know the light worked, but figured the switch was broken, I guess there's a common earth wire hence when one was fixed, it fixed the other at the same time ... ;)
 
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