1990 L300 - reverse lights won't turn on

[lookoutworld]

Well... please don't hate me... Because I haven't checked the bulbs yet. But I'm making the presumption that both of my reverse lights haven't burned out.... which could be bold.

Any idea where I can start to figure this one out? I have looked at all the fuses in front of the driver seat.

Thanks all! You rock!

-Scott

[motorang]

Hi there,
this is a very simple system.

The lights can be undone from the outside with a cross head screwdriver, to check the bulbs. The next suspect would be the switch. It lives on the right side of the gearbox (underside), with a cable bolted to the gearbox in 4 places. Number 3 here:

L300_rueckfahrschalter.jpg (58.31 KiB) Viewed 8614 times

Follow the cable to the 2 connectors on top of the gearbox.
Undo the connectors and short the two wires on the car side of things. That should make the reversing lights come on (with ignition on) if fuses and bulbs are OK.
On my van there was an additional issue as the two big white connectors living in the battery compartment were having bad contact as well. No damage done if you unplug them and put some contact spray there before replugging. You find the plugs when you follow the cables that live near the Diesel filler hose (good to see from the underside of the van).

The switch has a M12X1,25 mm thread size, thread is 11 mm long, with the pushpin (diameter 4.5 mm) protruding another 8 mm.
Spanner size is 19 mm, it is mounted with a 1 mm seal.
The original Mitsubishi number would be MD730711.

Replacement switches are a bit dear in Europe, and there are no aftermarket copies available. I was happy enough to have a spare from a wreck.
From the looks of it there are very similar switches around, just with a single 2 pole connector instead of two single pole connectors.
I measured them up, but as you loose some gearbox oil when changing the switch I did not test it by now.

The older MD730709 may fit as well, cable/plugs to be adapted.

The best offerI found was a replacement by Facet:
Facet 7.6047
They say it is identical to:
Hyundai 93860-31100 , 93860-14500 ,
Mitsubishi MD-730709 , MD-700198 , MD-703797

Andy

[lookoutworld]

(EDIT: replaced image links with attachments)

Motorang, thank you for the incredibly detailed response!!!

I *think* you may have helped me solve the mystery.

If my assumptions are correct, below is the wire as seen from the driver's side of the car:

File Aug 27, 8 30 28 PM.jpeg (504.9 KiB) Viewed 8589 times

The wires swing back over to the passengers side:

File Aug 27, 8 20 31 PM.jpeg (556.01 KiB) Viewed 8589 times

and this may be the culprit... a tiny discontinuity in one of the wires:

File Aug 27, 8 19 51 PM.jpeg (694.69 KiB) Viewed 8589 times

Tomorrow I'll cut, strip, and re-connect... fingers crossed!

[motorang]

Nice pictures,
yes thats the switch and its cable, right. Glad you found it.
May I copy your pictures to help others?

Andy

[lookoutworld]

Hey Andy,

You betcha!!! Thats why they are up here! Glad I can contribute.

Still havent been able to get out there and re-connect these to be sure its fixed...

-Scott

[Firesong]

Other possibility is if you have trailer light plug / module. That module may have died. It's happened to me in the past. Just went and picked up another trailer light adapter and rewired it (on my old L300)

[takeuchi]

Is this the switch for an automatic ('92)? It seems to have a wire that goes to another sensor/switch on the other side. This is the left (passenger) side of the transmission.

[takeuchi]

Never mind it seems after digging some more I found out it is a solenoid. Anytime have a pic of it on an automatic or am I just blind?

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk

[takeuchi]

Should I be looking at the inhibitor switch for an automatic?