My 97 Caravan with 3 spd tranny has an intermittent backup light problem.

When I first bought it in 2001, they didn't work at all, requiring a new switch, which is mounted on the transmission.

That has worked fine for 6 yrs. Now all of a sudden, they only work when I pull the shifter down towards Neutral, about a 1/4 inch.

I checked the shifter cable at the tranny and tried adjusting it. That did not work. I get the lights to work, but the orange indicator gets stuck between the R and the N, and does not correctly indicate which gear you are in.

I did notice that when I move the actual linkage on the transmission by hand, the lights come on, but when the linkage is manually turned to the reverse position (it clicks into place), the lights go out. They will come back on if I turn the linkage by hand just a little bit. Once it clicks back into the Reverse position, the lights go out.

2 questions;

1. Is the backup light switch faulty, requiring replacement?, or

2. Is there anyway to adjust the linkage at the tranny itself (not the shifter cable, but the metal linkage attached to the tranny)?

Thank you.

 

Then the shifter cable needs adjusting, The orange indicator is also adjustable. There is a small **** or screw on the steering colunm.

 

Thank you for that advice.

The switch was $14 CAD, so I'm going to install it tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I will look for that adjusting **** on the steering column.

 

It was a faulty switch.

I put the new one in today, re-adjusted the cable while in Park, and now it works 100%.

Thanks for your help.