I finally broke down and replaced the Park and Drive lights which are soldered to the tachometer board. Wasn't near as bad as I thought since I had instructions from the 928 forum. Anyway, put it back together and the park light lit up. Woohoo!

Now to my problem: When I shift to Neutral, the neutral and drive light come on. When I shoft to Drive they both stay on as well. All the other lights are working fine. I took the tach back apart today and cannot find where I am jumping. All the bulbs have continuity together which makes me think the trigger is a ground.

Does anyone know what my problem is, or where the trigger is for the gear selector (console?)

Thanks

 

byrdman wrote:

Back on the tranny. Yes I know, that really sucks. I looked into this a little while back when I had my PRNDL lights replaced, and "2" still didn't illuminate.

The part I believe has an MB part #. Don't know if it is available as a Porsche part.

Anybody know for sure?

 

On the Drives side of transmission there is a black switch with a round plug, it controls the dash indicator lights on the dash. To replace the switch turn the white lock CW then gently pry the cable off check for corrosion as will as the square 4 wire connector in the spear tire well. If you replace the switch it has to be adjusted by placing the Trans in neutral turn the switch until you align both holes; switch and Tran’s lever, use a drill as alignment tool. The MB # 000 545 55 106

 

did your N light work normally before the repair?

 

Steve C. wrote:

Anybody know how much this beauty costs?

 

Thanks for the correction

 

or unsoldered a ground, so they're finding a ground through each other, which is why they are dim...

 

Make sure the switch on the tranny is properly aligned, as per the instructions in the WS manual...............otherwise the lights will not "align".

Try slowly easing the gearlever from gear to gear. If you can get the lights to come on and off in sequence, then the switch alignment is the problem. If you can't get positions where two bulbs are never on seperately, then there's a short on the tach/bulb circuit board

I thought here was a problem with my gearbox switch and even bought a new one. I found the problem was alignment. So if you really need one, I can sell you my spare !

 

Thanks for all the help guys. When I went to insert the Drive bulb into its holster, one of the leads came off. It must have not been soldered good and found a ground with the Neutral bulb as Dave suggested. I resoldered it and threw it back in the car. Works perfectly now.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

While we are on this subject, anyone got an idea why my back-up lights illuminate when 2nd gear is selected?

 

Brian,
Your reverse lights are activated by the switch on the side of the transmission only. Read my post above.
.

 

Only my Reverse is lighting (correctly in reverse). Other bulbs do not light up. Rest of dash, and warning lights all appear to be working. Any thoughts on a plan - what to look for first? 1991S4.

 

In my case it was the drive light that was out, bad bulb - you can get replacements (solder in place) at Radio Shack.

Problem is that you need to pull the pod to check the bulbs so maybe someone else has a better idea.

 

Jim,

It might be that your gear indicator bulbs are toast.
I recently replaced mine.

PORSCHE p/n: 928 641 982 04 - GLASSOCKELLAMPE

I replaced most of mine with the OEM bulbs, but before I did I gave a stab at soldering in Sylvania #2721 (12v 1.2w) bulbs from the local auto parts store.

The soldering route was kind of PIA for me. You need to reuse the old connector base(s), and I didn't realize (until afterwards) NOT to snip the old connecting wires from the metal tabs of the connector base(s). I should've snipped them from as close to the old bulbs as possible instead.

Preserving that length of wire and its connection to the outer tabs would've been helpful since I couldn't get any solder to adhere to those tabs. I think maybe they're stainless steel. Whatever they are, the solder (and I tried a few different types) wasn't holding.

I wound up doing some careful wire-winding around the tabs and a touch of solder to the wire wrap to hold it all together. It worked, but if I'd had that saved bit of old wire to solder onto it would've been a lot less of a pain. I eventually reached my F*** It Factor and just ordered the rest of 'em OEM.

Your results my vary!

Jeff
'89 S4 auto

 

Wow. Thanks guys for your prompt replies. Hopefully I can source the bulbs here in New Zealand, and then pluck up courage to pull the pod. Am also taken with the Blue LED by Jager, so may go that way at the same time. Jim