There is a new style reverse light switch avavilable. It has different connectors than what I have always seen and a harness with receptacle that you have to assemble. Obviously it then needs to be spliced to the existing wiring.










It's hard to see in the pic but the prongs on the switch are smaller and flat on two sides so you can't mix and match.

But chances are your exisiting switch is still good and you just need to fix the wiring per one of the already offered methods.

It is a small chore and, yes, you will need to lower the gearbox a little on the left side but that really is not too difficult.

However, when I repaired this wiring on my '89 a couple of years ago I left the existing switch in place and worked under the car, removing the short sections where the insulation had crumbled and just twisted the ends together before sealing the repaired area with shrink tube.


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'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

The shredded wires are pretty common. I've actually never had a stick shift 240 that had reliable brake lights, no matter what I did to fix them, until I did something drastic:

I bought a new reverse light switch, crimped female bullet connectors on to two wires, and soldered those on to the switch. The other ends of those wires got spade connectors, and I cut the factory reverse switch wires inside the car, and crimped the other spade connectors on them. I couldn't get the switch, with the wiring, installed in the tranny, ever when I dropped it as low as I could by removing the crossmember. I was using one of those deep O2 sockets with the cutout for the wires, but there just wasn't room to get a ratchet in there. So I dropped the transmission out of the car completely, installed the switch, reinstalled the transmission, and connected up the wires.

Is it a lot of work to do just for reverse lights? Yes. But for the first time ever I have reverse lights that work and don't require a separate some kind of crazy work around.

if the wire is not totally destroyed right at the trani then solder new wire to it and use it. same with the other end.
This Insulation decay is typical for this harness... even in '89.
I had my Manual trani out I was surprised to see that there was almost no insulation on the wires. I cannot believe it did not short out.


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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.lyse.net/brox/TonyPage4.html http://cleanflametrap.com/tony/