Reverse light question

[jframe]

Full of questions since I am new to Riviera ownership. My 65 has inop reverse lights. Put new bulbs in; not the problem. Possible neutral safety switch? If so,where is it, and what's involved with changing it?

[alini]

Its at the base of the shifter, its pretty basic.   power comes in, goes through the switch to the bulbs.   The bulbs ground in the socket (making contact with the housing) so make sure you have good contact there before you rip into your dash

[RivNut]

At this stage of the game, a lot of older cars need dedicated ground wires to replace what used to be a chassis ground.  Tracing the problem with the back-up lights should be easy enough with a circuit tester - alligator clip on one end of a wire with a light in a probe on the other end. You start at the beginning of the circuit and keep testing until the bulb in the probe no longer lights. Clip to a known good ground then probe every terminal, switch, and socket.

[68RIVGS]

Age and corrosion in older cars can result in poor or faulty electrical circuits, and the loss of proper chassis ground connections. 

As a result, some of the electrical components fail to function, and will require some time and diagnostics to determine the cause.

Unfortunately the electrical circuits and components were just not designed to last forever.

Poor ground connections are a common fault in a 50 year old car !

[rodneybeauchamp]

A Dremel with a small wire wheel worked great for me on 63. So many under hood and interior connections had oxidised, gone black and would not work. With some care and a small screwdriver was able to release the male and the female connections from within their plastic housings to get at them and then 60 seconds with the Dremel makes them come up like new and they make 100% reliable contact.

Will eventually go over all connections but for now focused on those that did not work at all or were intermittent. I would suggest you look at this before replacing switches etc. Enjoy!

[telriv]

Once you get everything all cleaned up. The next thing to do is apply the copper contact paste. It should NO longer corrode or have a bad connection.

 

 

Tom T.