68 4 Speed Barracuda Back Up Light Woes

[geno440]

I am in the process of putting my 68 Cuda back together and I am having back up light woes.

My 4 speed tranny has a reverse switch on it. When I took it apart, it had a two tan wire connector that was melted off near the exhaust pipe attached to it.

I could not figure out where the other end would have gone. There were no extra, unused conectors on the engine wring harness.

I looked at a wiring diagram and it said that the two wires should have been violet and should have plugged into C and D of the Wiper Harness. I have three 68 Cuda harnesses and C and D are blank on all of them.

I am assuming that the white in the tail lights are the back up lights. I don't know how they could come on if the transmission never tells the wiring harness that it is in reverse?

Can any one shed some light on this for me?

 

[Wheels]

It is always nice to wire things up properly , but if your switch is working it just needs to be fed 12 volts from somewhere. one wire in with 12 volts and one wire out from the other side of the switch which runs all the way back to the 2 bulbs (one on each side of car) and yes the big white sections on your tail lights (68 cuda) are the back up lights. The bezels act as the ground to the body. I actually just put a toggle switch in my 65 cuda as a quick fix to pass my up comming safety check. flick the switch my backups come on. flick it off they go off. New wire from fuse box to switch to back up bulbs and Voila-back up lights. Cheers and good luck.

 

[Rocky_JS]

The other harnesses you have are for auto trans, thus they are either switched at the console or the column. Only the 4 speed went to the bulkhead then the transmission.
The 2 wires from factory should be violet on the engine harness side but in 40 years who knows what had been replaced or with what.
It makes no difference which wire goes where it is a simple 2 wire on off switch. You need to verify the dash harness had the wires going to the proper bulkhead connector.
If you have an automatic dash harness you will need to release the violet and white wires from the connector and re-route to bulkhead c and d terminals simple fix.

I looked at a wiring diagram and it said that the two wires should have been violet and should have plugged into C and D of the Wiper Harness. I have three 68 Cuda harnesses and C and D are blank on all of them.

I am assuming that the white in the tail lights are the back up lights. I don't know how they could come on if the transmission never tells the wiring harness that it is in reverse?
Can any one shed some light on this for me?