Hope everyone here is doing well.

I just remember my 85 XJ6 has had constant reverse lights on when engine starts without the gear shift to reverse.

What do I have to do to get it worked as normal?

Thanks for help in advance.

Mike

 

must be a misadjusted reverse light SWITCH.

Does your Cruise work?
Can you start the engine in any gear?

if yes, then the switch is located at the front right of the shifter. It is a Roller Switch with two or three wires.

if no, then the switch is mounted at the transmission, a round switch with 4 wires.

This is because at some point after 1984, the factory moved the switch to the transmission.
But the Service Manual was apparently not updated and I have never seen a Service Bulletin about the change.

If your switch is at the front of the shifter under the ashtrays panel, then you need to pull out the panel and adjust the Roller switch following the Service Manual instructions. The instructions are in the ELECTRICAL section of the Service Manual.
(not the S57 electrical guide, but the ELECTRICAL SECTION of the Service Manual). You can download it free at my website if you don't have it.
www.jagupgrades.webstarts.com

 

The switch on my 83 was on the transmission. So, in the transplant, I was left with options to keep the reverse light function. I opted to swap in an XJS shifter. More GM compliant. included a devixe on the tower, might be the same, it screws in!! My kit provided one and a nut to clamo it in then tower similar to the XJS. Sold off to another lumper.

Alas mine went on the blink, lights on... My bodge,. removed the bulbs. No longer up to diving in to the console...If I still had the new one, I sold, I just might.

Or follow Elinor's example and repurpose the master window switch on the comsole/// Never use it nohow!!


Off to bust quarantine.. Gas for Jeep;. Dr must visit in AM.. Poke in the eye!!


Carl.

 

Is this the reverse switch?

 

that's a RELAY.

 

Thank you, Carl, but actually I re-purposed the master window switch to manually shut off the AC compressor, so I now have that option like in every other rig here.

As my car has a Chevy 350/700R4 conversion, the backup lights came on (one of the things I checked upon pre-purchase inspection), just not when the car was in Reverse I soon learned. How handy is that!

I was also told to adjust the roller switch, but on my shifter (OEM Jaguar unit) no such adjustment was possible. So I mounted a momentary push button switch in the Left ash tray, re-routed the Light Green wires to it and Shazaam, I had Reverse lights!
(';')

 

I may have misunderstood. your car might be just fine.

Are the reverse lights on with the car in a forward gear? If not. probably, just jaguar "interesting engineering". A DD phrase...

Carl/

 

1984 cars with BW66 transmission have the roller switch in front of the shifter. Mine cannot be the only one. The adjustment is somewhat easy with the car parked in the garage.

you will need a 1/4" ratchet and a 4.5 mm socket. There are two tiny bolts that must be loosened.

once you loosen the bolts, start engine and shift to Reverse, foot on brakes so car does not move back, move the switch forward or backwards until lights go on in Reverse and off when you move the shifter to Park or to Drive.

if you can't see the lights going on and off, place a mirror where you can see at least one light from the driver's seat. Or get a helper to tell you when they are on or off.

 

I believe the single micro switch on the column is to do with the cruuse inhibit, but i have played with so many wires in the last 6 months theres no telling..

 

on the column? steering column? that one is for the claxon / horn.

in my car it does 3 things with 3 wires:

1) reverse lights switch,
2) neutral safety switch,
3) speed control switch.

 

Sorry, wrong word, tower, not column, as in shift tower.... in 83 the neutral safety switch and reverse lights are on the side of transmission, if yours is different you may have some finagling to do to get the trans you got from me to work

 

so apparently the change came for 1984 model year cars.

I haven't really looked closely at your transmission, if you recall I put it in a tub and closed it.

 

Yes, the reverse light is always on when the car is in forward gear or any gear.

 

I have a spare shifter assy in the house, I will vividly observer it to find out where this switch is located.
Then I will transfer that observation cruel live on the car.

 

Hi, here's a picture from one of my parts cars showing the switch Jose mentioned ( I think this is it, I can't use my meter to make sure since the car is partially disassembled ).

Cheers,
Brian

 

yes Brian that is the switch. There is an aluminium block between it and the shifter bracket.

 

No, Jose, yours isn't the only one. I have this exact switch, the problem is the Jag shifter on the Chevy trans.

The shifter says REVERSE but the trans says NOT YET and requires a bit more movement before REVERSE is actually engages. By that time the roller switch is completely out of position to fire the reverse lights.

I was told this is a common problem with conversions such as mine, unless, like Carl did, one acquired an XJS shifter (which Nix's previous owner did not), which correctly indexes Reverse.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.......
(';')

 

Probably not the reverse light switch, judging from the wires colors....which appear to be black/slate and yellow/purple. These colors correspond to the cruise control inhibit switch (see section 19.1 of the S57 wiring guide)

The early Series IIIs I've worked on had a plunger type reverse light switch mounted to the left side of the gearshift quadrant, part number C1083 in the illustration below


Here's a better picture of the reverse light switch itself:


The plunger moves inward when the gearshift is placed in "R", closing the circuit. The one time I had a car with reverse lights stuck on, the plunger was stuck in the depressed position and wouldn't let go. Replacing it solved the problem. The switch screws into the shift quadrant and is adjusted by adding/removing shims. If you google "Jaguar C1083" you can see other pics as well

The later, transmission mounted switch looks like this:


It is adjusted by loosening the hold-down down screw and rotating/pivoting the switch. In some cases the hole where the hold-down screw need to be elongated to allow the switch to rotate/pivot.

Whether early switch or late switch, the wires colors should be green and green/brown on the reverse light switch

Personally, I've not seen the lever-arm microswitch used as a reverse light switch on a Series III XJ6....but that might just be me. It's always been the plunger style or the transmission-mounted style.

(However, the V12 cars DID use the lever-arm microswitch for the reverse lamps, at least all the V12s I've seen and owned.)

Cheers
DD

 

ohhh I see. Well Elinor you may have solved a quagmire I have been dealing with.

I have a complete shifter assembly that has a round adjustable rotating switch on the left side of the shifter which my car does not have. ???

and it does not have the Cruise switch, this is a smaller shift quadrant, looks identical to the XJ-6 but no Cruise switch and has that round switch which I assume is the Neutral Safety and Reverse lights switch.

So it may be XJ-S and I thought it was a Series 2 XJ shifter.

 

Switch now caught, I will work on the settings as prescribed by Jose and update will be posted for further diagnosis.




Thanks to everyone for the support.