Jump to content
Ultimate Subaru Message Board

Loyale tranny swap. Lost the backup lights. Need a diagram.


Recommended Posts

94 Loyale and I scored a dual range 5 speed for it. Love it, but the electrical connectors aren't compatible and I'm trying to figure out how to get the backup lights to work. I found the backup switch wires on the dual range, but I don't know which pins to graft them onto on the '94 wiring harness.

 

I think I could figure it out if I had a wiring diagram that showed those connectors where they plug into the tranny. Anyone?

Thanks,

cnc

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We need to know some more info.

 

what trans did you have originally? auto/manual, FWD/4wd

 

Personally, I would do this the "hard" way. Subaru changed so many things over the years, that you never know whether a diagram is correct or not.

 

But the easiest way (if you had a manual single range trans) would be to pull the wiring harness off your original single range gearbox & fit that to the dual range gearbox. The switches will be in the same places on the casing. The only exception is a switch for the low range light, which I think was on the lever itself, not the gearbox anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That would have been a good move, but alas, it's too late.   :-(   

 

I have a 94 Loyale that had the 5 speed, single range manual tranny in it. I now have a dual range 5 speed manual tranny in it. Not sure what year it came from, but I might be able to find out.

 

The 94 car has a 4 pin socket and two 2-pin connectors on it. As a guess, I assume one of the 2-pin connectors is for reverse switch and the other is for neutral switch, with the 4 pin socket being the range switch or something. Clueless on that one. I tried shorting out each of the 2-pin connectors to see if the backup lights came on, but no. I had the ignition on, but not the engine. I had tail lights operating.

 

I'd assume that a wiring diagram for the '94 should be somewhere in the universe that would show the functions of each pin on those 3 connectors. I don't want to start shorting pins together to find which combination makes the backup lights come on, for fear of burning something out.

 

Ideas?

Thanks,

cnc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why is it too late? You've thrown away the old trans.

You can get under the car & swap the trans harness over relatively easily.

 

Trans should have the following switches:

4wd

reverse

neutral

not sure about the other one.

 

Try using a multimeter & unplugging the lights at the back of the car & trace the wire that way. then you just need to find a +12v wire with ignition on for the other side of the switch (I wouldn't have the engine running either)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was assuming that the transmission backup switch would be driving a relay somewhere in the car, which then sent 12v back to the lights in the back. If so, the lighting wires wouldn't even come into those connectors by the transmission. If however, there is no relay, then I can see that the rear lights would come to those connectors and as you suggest, I could just find +12v (with ignition on) and run it through the tranny switch and then back to the lighting wire.

 

I might try unscrewing the backup lights and tying a 9v battery to the socket and go back and look for 9v at the connector.

 

Thanks.

cnc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I figured it out. Here's what I did:  I used clip leads and put a 9v radio battery across the backup light wires in the tail light assemblies. I removed the bulbs first, to prevent draining the little battery. That allows me to poke around all of the terminals on the connectors at the transmission to locate the tail light wires. By using 9v, not 12, it's easy to spot just which wire is the one I want, and not just some other random 12v wire. Just use a multimeter to look for a pin with 9 volts on it. Then find the backup switch terminals on the tranny connector by ohms continuity with the same meter and now you have the actual lighting wire and the switch. Put the switch in series between the light wire and +12v, which you will find somewhere on the car connector that hooks to the tranny. I had to dismantle a couple of the connectors to yank the pins out because the two trannys had different connectors. I just poked the pins into the car connector and secured them with tie wraps. Been working just fine.

cnc

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...