I have a RWD 2002 4-door LS automatic that I recently purchased. The previous owner has done some work to it, new radio/speakers, headlights, alarm system with remote start. I've been doing some mechanical work on it, but this is one problem I cannot figure out.

The reverse lights turn on in neutral and not reverse. The first thing I checked was the neutral safety switch on the side of the transmission. It looked pretty rough and had some large rocks wedged behind it. I tried adjusting it to get the lights to turn on in reverse, but no dice. I went ahead and replaced the switch hoping that would resolve the problem, but still having the same result.

The instrument cluster is reading the correct gear the transmission is in. Is there something in the steering column that the previous owner could have mucked up? I can't find too much information on what's under the cover before I start taking screws out.

Thank you!

 

Sorry you haven't gotten a reply. I think you are on the right track looking for a switch engaged by the gear selector.

 

The reverse lights are powered through the PNP (park/neutral position) switch that you have already replaced. This switch can be a pain to get adjusted properly. Part of the procedure for adjusting it is to test by attempting to start the truck in various gears. The engine should only start in park and neutral.

You can back probe the gray (reverse light feed) and purple w/ white stripe (starter relay feed) wires at the 7 pin connector on the PNP switch to aid in adjustment. When in neutral or park, the gray wire should read open and the purple/white wire should read +12V. When in reverse, the gray wire should read +12V and the purple/white wire should read open.

As always, make sure to safely limit motion of the vehicle while you are under it messing around with transmission shifter.

 

Thank you for the replies. I tried starting it in Neutral and it would not. I didn't notice this before, but when shifted into Neutral, the instrument cluster doesn't light up the N. If I'm in Park, Reverse, or Drive, it lights up those no problem.

I'm not sure if this is intended behavior, but when I shift in Neutral or Drive the instrument cluster quickly jumps back to P before lighting up D. I believe this is going to be more complicated than I thought. I'm leaning towards something the previous owner did while installing the radio or alarm system. I've never installed either one of those myself so I'm not sure what could have been mucked with in the process.

 

Mini update: I tried starting it in Drive and it cranked right up. Instrument cluster even said it was in drive when it cranked. NSS must be out of whack. I tried adjusting it up/down as much as she would go, but still didn't get desired results. I don't think I put it on the shaft wrong, I think it can only go on there one way right? The shaft has smooth surfaces on each side that match the hole in the NSS.

How can I adjust the NSS differently or is there a different adjustment I can do? When I installed the new one it had a metal clip holding the rotating switch in place when I installed it. Instructions said for the vehicle to be in Neutral when installing.

Thanks!