How to remove the Reverse Light Switch connector on R154?!

[MD_Co]

Hey All,
So I'm in the middle of tearing down my 7MGTE to fix its BHG. I'm doing the BHG fix with the engine/trans in the car. I've got nearly everything off and am close to being able to remove the head bolts, but I'm stuck on how to get this darn reverse light connector removed from the top of the transmission! This is the last thing preventing me from moving the wiring harness away from the lower intake manifold. I just can't get my hands up and around the transmission to reach the connector that's on top.

From looking at pictures of the transmission, it seems like the connector is too far forward to be able to reach it from the shifter hole in the interior. From underneath the car, I can reach both sides of the wiring around the connector, but it doesn't seem like there's enough slack either way to pull the connector down. You can see the connector in this picture:



I've been searching and searching but I haven't found anyone that provide an easy way to remove this thing with the transmission still in the car. Any tips???

This is driving me crazy. :1zhelp:

Thanks,
-Mike

 

[hbski]

You can try to lower the back end of the transmission by removing the transmission cross member.

 

[jetjock]

Odd, I've never had to disconnect that and I've done several HG jobs on the GTE...

 

[MD_Co]

Odd, I've never had to disconnect that and I've done several HG jobs on the GTE...

Hmm....Its one of the wires that goes through the runners on the lower intake manifold, between runners for cylinders #4 & #5. There's also the starter wires, transmission speed sensor wires, and a sensor wire if I remember correctly.


How else do you get the wiring harness out of the way?

I'm almost thinking about cutting the wire and adding another connector inline in a place thats easier to reach...

 

[MD_Co]

Oh one other thing... The TSRM also says "Remove transmission connectors" on step 6 of cylinder head removal on page EM-37. So, I'd think this is common and I'm not sure how you'd get around it...
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK3/manual.aspx?S=EM&P=37

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

There should be a connector right next to the starter. If you have ABS, there are 2.

 

[MD_Co]

There should be a connector right next to the starter. If you have ABS, there are 2.

I thought that there would have been, but I checked multiple times and couldn't find one for this reverse light wire. I'll check again tho.

 

[3p141592654]

I had heard of this before, and when I was doing my HG a long time ago I bought connectors planning to cut the wire in a convenient spot. But when I actually did the job all the connectors were at the starter and it was a non-issue. There must be a build date where the harness changed?

 

[MD_Co]

I had heard of this before, and when I was doing my HG a long time ago I bought connectors planning to cut the wire in a convenient spot. But when I actually did the job all the connectors were at the starter and it was a non-issue. There must be a build date where the harness changed?

So maybe I have an earlier version of the harness without these connectors?

I checked again just now and there's no connector for the reverse light switch between the main harness and the inaccessible connector on top of the transmission. I took this picture to show the section that I'm talking about:


Looks like I might be cutting this wire and splicing in a weatherpack connector...

 

[OneJArpus]

you have to lower the trans to get to it

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

It's like that on my '87 harness and the '90 one. <shrug>