February 29, 2016
I found that the backup lamps weren't working when I brought the car home. After consulting the factory service manual, I located the backup lamp switch at the rear of the transmission. When I tried to disconnect the wiring harness from the backup lamp switch I found the WeatherPack connector was fractured and it appeared to have been repaired with Super Glue. Clearly the connector would need to be replaced.
On to the switch. When I shorted the two wires in the connector the backup lamps turned on. So the switch was defective.
I ordered a new switch from Ecklers:
| Corvette Back-Up Light Switch, For Cars Manual Transmission, 1984-1988 | 25-112412-1 | 1 | $31.67 |
The backup lamp switch is positioned in such a way that you can't get a socket or wrench on it. You'll need a 7/8" Crow Foot wrench on the end of an extension:
Once the switch was installed, I needed to repair the broken Weather Pack connector. Some of the members of the CorvetteForum.com suggested that I get either a PT107 or PT724 Weather Pack connector shell and swap the wires from the old shell to the new one. As it turns out, the PT107 connector does not work as it has the wrong indexing slots as shown in the picture below.
I then purchased a PT724 connector that included pigtail leads from a RockAuto.com. The PT724 is the correct connector. The indexing slots match the ones in the backup switch.
Swapping the wires from the old connector to the new requires a special tool. I purchased the tool from a seller on Amazon.com for about $8.00. This tool slides onto the connector pins and releases the lock-tabs allowing the wire and pin to slide out of the connector. I removed the backup lamp wiring from the old connector shell. Then I removed the pigtail leads from the new connector shell and discarded the pigtail leads.
Once the wires were moved from the old connector shell to the new one, the backup lamp repair was complete.