Reverse switch for t5

  • #1

    Reverse switch for t5

    I just want to confirm this before I frustrate myself too much. 86 turbo with T5 and the reverse lights stopped working. I bought something labeled as reverse light switch/neutral safety switch on ebay and it is too small to thread into the transmission. This is the switch on the driver's side that I am trying to replace. From what I can see the neutral switch is not accessible while the trans is in the car. I'm just trying to determine if I am trying to change the correct part and the part that was sent is wrong. The part I got has a long button where the part I removed is short almost like a ball bearing.

  • #2
    Nissan PN is 32006-M8060, it's on the drivers side of the T5. The neutral switch will not interchange.

    Source

    My experience:
    I replaced the one in my 84T, thinking it had gone bad, but when depressed outside of the transmission, it worked fine. I found that even with a new switch installed, it wasn't getting activated and turning on the reverse lights. The consensus at the time (this was a decade or more ago) was that the tab inside the transmission that is responsible for activating the reverse switch needed some adjustment, likely bending it out a bit so it pressed the switch in further.

    Not wanting to remove the transmission and crack it open, I took a grinder to the sensor face (highlighted in red below) and removed enough material, evenly so that the switch was threading in further and getting activated regularly.
    I'm not sure overall how much i had to remove, but i remember i had to do it again (removing a bit more) a few years later.

    sensor.JPG

    Removing the face material and some rtv on the threads did the trick for me.


    84 AE/Shiro #683/Shiro #820/84 Turbo
  • #3
    Thanks for that. I did a generic T5 reverse switch search and that one popped up on several mustang sites. I did come across that old thread and was hoping in my case it is just a bad switch. Before I do anything I'm going to test it which I should have already done. I should be able to test it with a multimeter because unscrewing it isn't a big deal but that plug is a bitch.

    I did notice it was only finger tight so I tightened it to check but that didn't work. Is the rtv like super low grade loctite in this application and would I be able to substitute teflon tape instead? I have both but the tape isn't as messy.

    Thanks again and I really hope I don't have to pull out the grinder.

    Comment

    • Z_Karma
      #3.1
      Z_Karma commented
      05-05-2021, 10:34 PM
      iirc, I used a bit of the rtv on the face to help fill in any grinding marks. I think it's well above the fluid level, so it's not critical.