Well, my truck wouldn't pass its inspection without the reverse lights working everytime and I was told by the repair shop that the switch would definitely need replacing however they said they couldn't even get one from their distributors, unless it was for a standard tranny, go figure. So I went to a local parts "franchise" and they said they could get me one but not for at least two weeks. Meanwhile the original repair shop scraped my old sticker off of the window due to it being outdated then said they couldn't fix it. SO...there I am going to work without an inspection tag in my window, good thing I work at night. Well, I got tailed across town by the fuzz and I figured he noticed my missing tag and when he pulled into the bank behind me I thought I was all done, he took off! Well that was close enough for me so I decided to climb under the truck to have a look(in a snowbank no less) and noticed that the switch did have screws holding its two halves together, which if I remember correctly someone on here had said it did. So I said hell with it and grabbed some frozen tools and commenced to removing the switch. Got it out after about two hours due to my fingers getting constantly frozen and took the switch apart. Anyway, to make a long story a little longer there was a buncha hardened grease all over the inside of the switch and the two contacts that were on the plastic arm were stuck inside it with only one making any contact on anything, the springs under the contacts wouldn't even "spring" due to being plugged with the grease, so in the end, I cleaned it out really good, applied new electrical grease, put it back in and everything works perfect. Took it back and it passed its inspection with flying colors(and reverse lights) and the tech even wanted to buy it off of me...I told him maybe in springtime, he was amazed at its condition for an '87, boy what little he knows! Well, I saved over $250 and got my inspection all legal, at least for another year, Merry X-mas to me!
- posted
18 years ago