http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=191526&highlight=reverse+li
ght
This thread gave me push to get off my lazy ass and get my reverse lights
working again. Mine were intermittent, you you could see that wiggling the
shifter would make them flicker. I took it apart tonight, the "slider" found
on the shifter itself was pretty much past its prime, the top section of it
actually wore a hole in it. Savvy cheapskate that I am, I broke out the
soldering iron and soldered myself a new surface for it. shaped and filed it
smooth, cleaned the contact points, sprayed all with a little corrosion X
and good as new! I'd feel better with a new piece but I have a feeling its
not gonna be an easy part to locate? This should hold up for awhile though,
i'm very surprised there were not starting issues it was so chewed up. No I
gotta replace a burned out bulb on the pass side though
Markus
mdetro4660@aol.com
on 2/3/07 8:48 PM, robertmstewart at robertmstewart@mac.com wrote:
> Hello to all,
>
> Been a while since I posted anything on the site. I have been super busy
> with a new job in Brooklyn at a company called VICE.(www.viceland.com)
>
> Anyway, my van has been great but I recently took it to be be serviced for
> some upper ball joints and replacement of the neutral/parking switch in my
> 88 Automatic and now itıs not working.
>
> The mechanic purchased the wrong year part for the Neutral/Park Swtich, he
> said and he put back the old one. At first when I picked up the van it would
> not start, he had to put it in neutral to start it. I told him that would
> not suffice till the new part arrived. He fiddled with it, adjusted the unit
> and got it start in park. I drove upstate on a 2 hour drive and it was fine.
> I stopped for gas once turning the van off, and starting it again but when I
> arrived to my destination in Bloomingburg NY and tried to start it in the
> morning to go snow tubing it would not start. All the dash lights came on
> but no start.
>
> I called the mechanic and he told me the contact from the Automatic shifter
> just had to be pushed against the Neutral/Park Switch. I tried this several
> times with no luck. Since I had the shifter hood off, I removed the 4
> connectors going into the neutral/park switch and lightly sanded them to
> clean them up, I also did this on the contact bridge and the inside of the
> neutral/park switch. I tried to start the van again, but no luck, not in
> park or neutral.
>
> The contact bridge does look a bit warn, looks like its warn on the top and
> angles outward toward the bottom. It has started reliably for a year now
> without a problem till this mechanic fiddled with it. Any ideas for a short
> term fix? Is this something I can get at an AutoZone type place? Can I make
> something from Tin-Foil or another substance?
>
> Can I easily remove this contact switch? If so how?
>
>
> If I canıt figure out a temporary fix to get it back to Brooklyn NY then I
> will to leave it upstate and take the bus back to NYC.
>
> Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Go the website link below to see the photoıs of the two items.
>
> Thanks again to everyone for their ideas in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Robert
