this has been going on for a while now... put it in reverse and they'd blink on and off or stay on the whole time depending on where I held the shifter. tonight they stopped working all together

I'm thinking it may be the switch on the transmission? only thing is I see two places wires connect to the transmission on the right side. one closest to the engine before the transfer case in the middle, and one towards the back on the top-right. would it be the one in the middle? and if so, is it a simple plug in type deal or do you have to unscrew that bolt type thing it's attached to?

did a search but couldn't come up with all the info I need, hope someone else on here has done this type of thing before

 

okay, I went back under there and the one in the middle has the connector that pulls right out. looks like after that's out you can take a wrench and unscrew the other part from the transmission.. I'm guessing this is the switch, because the one in the back has a similar type of connector but about 4" before it reaches the transmission with no removeable piece on the transmission.

so hopefully that's it... I'd appreciate any thoughts you guys might have on this

 

okay, I took the switch out (it's the first one before the transfer case) cleaned the gear oil off of it, and pressed it a few times with my thumb.
At first it only pressed in a little, then I pressed it some more and it went in twice as far... so there was junk inside of it.

hooked it back up to the wire, turned the key on and pressed it myself a few times. *reverse lights did nothing* pressed it a few more times and they start working! I put it back in the transmission a bit tighter than it was origonally (it wasn't too tight) and now everything works like a dream


sorry for all the long posts, and I would delete this, but I'ma leave it in case anyone else has this problem... may just needa take the switch out like I did and clean it off ;-)

 

Didn't even need our help! Good job, I'll keep it in mind if that ever happens to me.

 

Im having the same problem with my 87 Automatic. Is there any difference?

 

not sure on that one, anyone know how the reverse switch works in the automatic?