Neutral light stays on

[stogieBill]

Time to consult the gurus of Guzzidom,

 

I recently replaced (second time) my shift return spring and shift arm on my Scura. Since then the neutral light is on constantly. At first I thought I had a bad connection on the sender, but I've satisfied myself that I have a good solid connection.

 

Any thoughts as to what I did wrong?

 

By the way, this last broken spring was the Cannon Racecrafter aftermarket variety. It lasted all of 1000 miles. Its still hard for me to swallow that its breaking due to the spring boss being 16mm instead of 15mm.

 

Thanks for your insights.

 

 

[Dan M]

Bill, The neutral switch turns on the light by supplying ground to the circuit. The switch has a ball that falls into a relief in one of the selector plates when the transmission is in neutral, closing the switch. First unplug the wire at the switch and see if the light goes out with the wire not touching anything. If it does go out, the problem is that the switch is supplying ground at all times. Unscrew the switch and see if the spring loaded ball moves freely. If you removed the switch during your repairs, you may not have it screwed in fully causing the ball to always stay extended, closing the switch. The switch itself can be tested once removed with an ohm meter; there should be continuity between the terminal and threads with the switch extended and be open with the switch depressed. Hope this helps.

 

Edit: If the light stays on when the switch is unplugged, you may have pinched the wire somewhere shorting it to ground during your work.

 

When I replaced my spring, I found it helpful to bend the new spring slightly to reduce tension against the shift arm. This allows the spring to do it's job without winding to tightly around the 16mm boss. If it doesn't get so tight as to "grab" the boss durning shifting, it will be under much less stress and not be prone to breaking.

[stogieBill]

Thanks for the idesa, Dan. I'll look into the pinched wire thought. I didn't remove the switch from the sideplate during spring replacement, so hopefully I didn't allow the ball to fall out and become lost.

[Dan M]

Thanks for the idesa, Dan. I'll look into the pinched wire thought. I didn't remove the switch from the sideplate during spring replacement, so hopefully I didn't allow the ball to fall out and become lost.

 

 

No problem Bill, The ball is part of the switch, it will not fall out. If you never removed the switch the trouble is likely external.

[BrianG]

Afret checking out the more likely "short to ground" as mentioned above, don't be too surprized that the switch has failed. They are pretty flakey and prone to failure from what I've read on this forum over the last few years, although I must say that generally what is seen is the opposite of yours..... that is, they fail to make contact and fail indicate neutral.

[docc]

Maybe an appropriately placed mallet strike would pop its little ball out and the world would once again be spinning on greased grooves.

 

That is, have you tried hitting the switch with the proper hammer?