wiring info required

[Colin McA]

Hi All,

I am needing to reconnect the wires back in to my inhibitor switch.

I don't have a manual and cannot remember how they were before.

Can anyone shed some light in my direction?

Thanks
Colin

[harvey]

There are 4 wires in 2 pairs of different colours and each pair fit to opposite terminals on the switch. If you wire up wrongly it will start in reverse, and the reverse lights will come on in park and neutral, so you can do it by trial and error.I'm assuming the switch is correctly fitted and adjusted.

[Colin McA]

Cheers harvey,

Fingers crossed the beast will breathe this weekend.

I haven't even started the engine since August/september last year.

Colin

[Phil Nottingham]

Its best to identify which pair of wires feed the Reverse lights and which go to the Lucas relay on the right of the heater. Of the two pairs of terminals one pair the male Lucars are at Right angles and the other are at 45 degrees - I think the reverse light pair is the 45 deg pair (but I may have forgot or they my have been bent!)

[harvey]

White/red wires are for the starter cutout, green/brown are the reverse light wires. All the lucars should be at 90 degrees. As the terminals are not marked on the switch I find trial and error easiest and it can be done before the tunnel goes back in.

[Phil Nottingham]

Sorry to disagree Harvey - its the Reverse light terminals that are at 45 degs, the starter ones are at 90 - many do get bent in completely different directions although its usually obvious how they were meant to be - see workshop manual for diagram

[harvey]

The only picture I can find in the factory manual shows all the lucars at 90 degrees, but all I'll do is have a close look at the next one I do, I can't say I ever remember them any other way than that, but it's of no consequence anyway.

[Colin McA]

Thanks Phil and Harvey,

My connectors got bent, as I still have the tunnel off. I was thinking I could take the switch off and see when the reverse light come on.

So questions is the plunger will make a circuit depending how far in it goes. what goes in more the park and neutral or the reverse?

Colin

[p5tgc]

Colin, have sent you scan of shop manual covering this procedure.
From memory, it's not much easier from the top than from the bottom, and its still trial and error.

[Deleted]

The switch terminals are slightly different sizes. The starter are smaller and the reverse is larger. Try flashing the wire pairs together to check the wiring first. green reverse / brown inhibitor. Make sure they are tight and not liable to slip off or you might get stuck somewhere. It is not possible to do from underneath unless you have a pit or lift. Dont unscrew it or else you will have more problems.

[harvey]

Your gearbox reconditioner should have set the inhibitor switch adjustment when he rebuilt the box so it should be just a matter of fitting the wires to the correct pairs of terminals.
As for the terminals being different sizes, I've never noticed it, and as I've got loads of spare time,I measured them on several switches I've got, and found no differences, maybe it's a French thing!

[Phil Nottingham]

They are the same size on the ones I have too - perhaps this is a later way of identifying the correct opposing pair for production as with the 45 deg type terminals because the gearboxes would have come without the loom attached so the assembly workers would not have wasted time 50% chance of being wrong! of connecting the correct wires.

[Colin McA]

Hi Guys,

All sorted on the switch front. I have a later version self setting switch fitted to the car. the reverse lamps terminations are smaller. it was simple to identify the pair of wire that did each function. The starter wires are cotton braided and the reverse lamps are just normal insulated wires, think they were green white.

I took a photo to clarify, also note that the terminations are numbered.

I ended up breaking a termination and had to solder a wire with a spade on the end to get the reverse lamps working. Maybe the later cars had smaller connectors on the permanent wiring but my car (april 1970) had regular sized ones. I expect a wire to fall off at some point.

Colin

[harvey]

I've got several of the later type switches (where you set the plunger length rather than adjustment with a locknut) and all of the terminals are the same size. Maybe different manufacturers made the switches at different times. I notice the brown in your pictures, all mine are black.
Another thing to remember is the 35 box was fitted in loads of different makes and models of that era, all with a similar switch fitted in roughly the same place, and it's more than likely some manufacturers specified the switch with different size terminals and after this length of time some of those switches could have ended up on Rovers. I never came across different size terminals working on Rovers as new cars though.

[Phil Nottingham]

Apart from different switches - and the last BW 35's had non-adjustable switches anyway, the later looms were all PVC which makes it easy to identify the colours - the bent terminals on the picture indicate the usual problem of which ones are meant to be straight - they do break off eventually.

I cannot say I have seen any of the non-adjustable types with the different sized terminal posts either, but then Rover, especially towards the of BLMC as a public company as opposed to a state-owned one used anything that was to hand anyway.

Glad you have sorted it anyway