Reverse lights (67) please help

Edbert

Founding Member
Jul 13, 2002
3,548
32
109
Austin TX
Last thing missing on my wiring is the backup lights, can't get them to come on for anything! Recognising the involvement of the neutral safety/reverse switch on the tranny I have bypassed everything except the backup light housing and the two wires coming off of it.

So I have the housing with a bulb and the two wires. Since these lights are simply on/off (no off/dim/bright like others) one wire has to be + and the other has to be - right? I've looked at the factory wiring diagram. Here's a copy just in case:
67exter1.jpg


Only two wires right? So what could possibly cause both of my lights to not work, even if hooked directly to a 12V source and grounded? I held the leads to by battery and got a little spark but did not illuminate or pop the bulb. I figured it was possible to have one bad housing/assembly since they are so old, but two defective housings at once?

I plan on replacing the whole units when she goes in for paint so I am willing to chop these up in any way. What am I missing, what can I do to get the bulbs to illuminate?
 

Attachments

  • 67exter1.jpg
    67exter1.jpg
    138.6 KB · Views: 7,328
  • Sponsors (?)


I observed the filaments on both bulbs, they are solid visually. I was gonns try and swap a set from the front but they are different, of the off/dim/bright variety.

I gave up, the chrome is bad, the wiring is brittle, the lenses are milky. These are original parts, and full repro units with gaskets/lenses/wiring/etc are pretty darn cheap. We verified the + leads from the painless kit is sending signal, so I'll just swap them out.