96cx

hey guys... some reason my reverse light don't turn on. i replaced the bulbs but still they dont turn on... i checked the tranny and found that there are some plugs which are not plugged in but i can't find where there are any missing area to plug into... anyone knows where i am supposed to plug it into? some history of the car... i bought it from a guy who had a b18c in it.. he took it out and put a 99 d16 into it.. dint realize it had no reverse light till soemone told me 1 month later... called the guy he said... i specifically stated AS IS.. so i am pretty much on my own. any info would be great guys/gals.. .thanks again

PokeyD16Z

the reverse light switch has its own harness. Two wires, I believe. Find the corresponding plug and plug it in. If you can't find a plug, just use male/female connectors soldered on. I can't recall teh color of the wires, but when i get home, i'll check my manual and look under the hood.

project_mercy

On a manual B-series tranny, there's a big phat plug on the front bottom of the trani. It'll have two wires coming out of it. Depending on the harness used, they're probably Yellow (or possibly yellow/red) and Green/Black. When your trani is switched into reverse, those two wires are connected, which then powers your backup lights.

On an automatic trani, there's a few wires that go to the automatic gear position switch (again Yel & Grn/Blk) that (again) get connected when in reverse, and powers your backup lights.

So, depending on the case, find that switch.

Turn the car on

check voltage on the Yel (Yel/Red) wire and see if you have voltage (it'll be whatever your system is currently running at, so +12vDC +/- 1.5) If not, go find out why not.

check if you have ground on the Grn/Blk lines. if not, go find out why not.

jumper a wire between the two wires. See if your backup lights are now on.

If all of the above is true, the switch is broken. Otherwise the part that failed is what's broken.

96cx

im not sure if it was a manual or a auto... but it had a b18c in it .. now it has the d16... i checkd the d16 tranny and ther are like 2 plugs.. one is the speed sendor deal and the other some other plug but it already has something in it. all the plugs on the tranny have been plugged into something on the harness already. i haven't been able to find any other place to plug the other stuff in... any more help would be desired. and i will folow the steps you guys gave me earlier to chk it again.

XiiiXiii

simple (and sometimes stupid) question...have you check your fuses?

huntarrr

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by XiiiXiii &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">simple (and sometimes stupid) question...have you check your fuses?</TD></TR></TABLE>
That's what I was going to say.. no one has even mentioned that yet..

start with the small things first

Pioneer162

Ditto, when something electical happens, check fuses.....

TouringAccord

I'm having the same problem with my 92 hatch with a D16Y8 and manual tranny. I haven't looked to see if something isn't plugged in at the tranny yet but I have replaced the lights and check the fuses. Are the wire colors different for a D16Y8 motor from what project_mercy listed above. If not, this weekend I'll start trying to figure out why they don't light up by following those instructions. TIA

project_mercy

Yours should be YEL and GRN/BLK.

Basically the sensor's got a rubber boot around the end of it, and the wires run up to a connector on the side of the trani by where the the soft-line to the clutch slave cylinder is stabilized. Don't mess with the rubber boot at the head of the sensor. That's soldered on, there's no way to disconnect it there (without doing damage)

My test procedure in english (after you check the fuses as that other guy suggested. I always forget to tell people to do that)

Disconnect the sensor plug. Put car in reverse and check connectivity between the two contacts (sensor side) No connectivity then a.) car not in reverse or b.) sensor's broke. Jumper the car-side of the connector (stuff a wire in both ends) and see if you have lights. No lights, you have a break in the wiring somewhere. Do the above test to see on which side.

TouringAccord

Great, thanks. One more question though. Sorry if it's a stupid one but I'm still new to the trouble shooting of the elctronics.

You said "check if you have ground on the Grn/Blk lines. if not, go find out why not." How do I go about checking if it's ground?

I have a multimeter and a test light and know how to use them but I'm still learning so please bare with me.

Thanks

project_mercy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TouringAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great, thanks. One more question though. Sorry if it's a stupid one but I'm still new to the trouble shooting of the elctronics.

You said "check if you have ground on the Grn/Blk lines. if not, go find out why not." How do I go about checking if it's ground?

I have a multimeter and a test light and know how to use them but I'm still learning so please bare with me.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm totally down with people asking sane technical questions. People have to learn somewhere.

By check for ground I mean check for continuity between that pin and "ground" or the negative side of the battery. Basically most cars are wired up so that the negative side of the battery is connected to the chassis of the car. So if you wanted to run a lightbulb, you'd just run +12V (the positive battery post) to the light, then connect the (-) side of the light to the chassis of the car. It saves having to do a lot of wiring, reduces the load on the electrical system, and fire hazards.

Example: You have a big phatty wire that runs from the Postive post on your battery to your starter (starters take a huge amount of amperage to turn your engine over). Notice, no big black cable. Why? The starter is "grounded" (meaning, the negative side is connected to the whole starter metallic body) to the transmission. The transmission is, subsequently "grounded" to the chassis of the car by a wire strap that runs from the top of the trani to the side of the car. That's your trani ground strap. The electricity then get's "back" (not technically true, DC currently flows in reverse, but it's easier to explain) to the battery via the chassis, to the black wire that's bolted from your shock tower and runs to the negative side of your battery.

This is why, when you accidentally take a wire from the positive side of your battery and touch anywhere on the car, it sparks. Because, the whole car is connected to the negative side.

Anyway, to check continuity (aka connection) to ground, put one of the multimeter test probes on the pin you're testing, then just touch the other probe to any clean metallic object on the car. Like a bolt, or your engine, or something without paint and rust on it (sometimes a bit hard to find, you may hvae to scratch a little clear spot)

civic_si_ninenine

sort of on topic.......but my reverse lites only come on if i forcefully hold the shifter down and back in the reverse position. its kinda hard to explain, but if i take my hand off the shifter, the lites dont work, but when i jam it more into reverse, then they come on. its been like this since i had the car. anybody know what it could be causing this? oh, i got a skunk 2 short shifter and replaced the bushings w/ energy suspension ones......and the skunk 2 ****, thats it.

TouringAccord

great, that helps. I didn't get the chance to work on it over the weekend, hopefully tomorrow I'll have time. But I am a little unclear about one more thing.

When you check the continuity, it displays the value in Ohms correct? If so, what value am I looking for? If not and I'm thinking of something different, what is displayed when checking for continuity?

Thanks for all the help.