1998 dodge ram reverse wire

My family has a 1998 Dodge Ram Truck that only gets used a couple times a month when we need to carry or move stuff. It recently failed the state inspection because of the reverse lights not working. I tried to meter the wires at the reverse lights to see if they are getting a signal and they are not. I was hoping to track down the problem without putting too much money into the truck. My first thought was to see if the reverse wire inside the truck is getting the proper signal. Unfortunately, I don't have a color or location of the wire. Directechs doesn't list anything for the reverse wire, and it is the only online wire database I currently have access to. Can anybody here tell me if any of the other wiring databases list anything? Where does the reverse signal come from? Is it something located in the transmission, or is it a switch in the steering column that gets triggered when you put the shifter in reverse? The truck has a column shifter.

Reverse switch as far as I know should be coming from the Transmission. From what I have seen in the past they are typically a single wire switch, similar to the park neutral switch. Check for the obvious, perhaps the wire came loose or has a poor connection.

I happen to have a 1998 ram factory service manual.  The circuit for the back-up lamps is fed from fuse 7 (10 amp).  It then goes through the park/neutral position switch.  Located on the drivers side of the transmission.  There should be 3 pins or connections at the plug.  The 2 outer pins are for the back-up light circuit.  The center one is for the starting circuit.  From the it goes through some factory splices to the back-up lights.  Let me know if you need specific wire colors or more info.  Hope this helps.

JWORM if you dont mind spending 10 bucks you can get most car info from a website provided from a company called MITCHELL.  Many repair shops have an agreement with them in which I think you spend about 300-400(still trying to find out) a month but then again I would only recommend to get if your pushing a lot of installs.  This program is used by DEI to actually get their wiring info.  They first look at the MITCHELL program and then compare with a car and verify.  Trust me, DEI uses it as a reference guide and even have the program running when you call for tech support.  The 10 bucks is basically a 1 week pass to a specific vehicle and shows the actual wiring for that vehicle including the BACK UP circuitry.  Not only wiring for the vehicle but also repair engines and other components of the vehicle.  Good Luck.   http://www.eautorepair.net/default.asp

todds440 wrote: I happen to have a 1998 ram factory service manual.  The circuit for the back-up lamps is fed from fuse 7 (10 amp).  It then goes through the park/neutral position switch.  Located on the drivers side of the transmission.  There should be 3 pins or connections at the plug.  The 2 outer pins are for the back-up light circuit.  The center one is for the starting circuit.  From the it goes through some factory splices to the back-up lights.  Let me know if you need specific wire colors or more info.  Hope this helps.

I started working on it this weekend. There is a 2 wire connector on the driver side of the transmission. They both read about 2.5 volts when the ignition is on whether it is in park or reverse. I don't see any other plugs on that side. On the passenger side there is a 3-wire plug, but it looks like the type of wiring that goes to an oxygen sensor. There is an oxygen sensor nearby too....there is just a point where I loose track of the wiring because it goes up and behind some other parts. The #7 10 amp fuse has +12v when the ignition is on. I wish the problem was that simple. A specific wire color would be nice. todds440, I'll drop you a PM.

I just did a little more digging on the truck. I found the 3 pin connector todds440 mentioned. There was a wire that metered as ignition, another wire that metered +12v when in gear and 0v when in park/neutral, and then a violet/black wire that was 0v all the time. I have a feeling that violet/black wire is supposed to be the reverse wire. At this point it looks like the switch inside the transmission isn't working correctly.