Yup I figured I may have to fabricate something, I guess the right length is long enough to touch and move the switch.
I did find these items on eBay, they each contain a pin or roll pin that may be what I need, although each listing is a little different from the other. Take a look at these on eBay and see if anything here has the part I need.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221999290618?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222001051679?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281663744054?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

Other wise I'll just make something as you say

None of those is anything like what you need -- those are for the steering shaft-to-gearbox coupler, under the hood.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Okay thanks Dan.
I put my finger down to feel around the hole that I need to make a pin for and I noticed it felt like the hole wasn't centered in the pathway ..it felt close to the firewall side. I got my mirror to get more of a top-down angle look on it, and sure enough it is not centered. This will make fitting a piece for the hole a little more difficult. No doubt the pin that I hopefully can make for the hole, will rub against the side as I shift ..I made another pic with the mirror to show just how off center in the path opening the hole is.
IMG_0449 by BionicSix, on Flickr


it's such a tight area to work in but I'll figure something someway

OK gentlemen, my back up lights are finally working in reverse gear as they should. Thanks to all for helping me solve this interesting problem, which as it turned out, was mechanical not wiring. I had to make a prong/pin to rise vertically up from the gear column and contact ( ..and move ) the tang on the reverse switch. It was such a tight fit area that it was very hard to find any room to do anything ..but w/ a little brass pin and a lot of JB weld , I somehow managed to "mickey-moused" my way to a fix ..at least for now. Thanks again all!

Sorry no pics

Real good!

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

That was fun.

What's next? Start a new thread (with pictures of course) so we can fix something else on your car.

I didn't even break a nail or get my hands dirty.

Checks are in the mail!

Well my victory was pee-mature. I can't figure out why, but simply re-connecting the reverse switch is somehow draining my battery. Just 2 little wires back together and the batt starts losing power quickly and the car wont even try to start.

The fuses are good, the power wire for the reverse switch ( a white wire ) is fused and only gets power when the key is on. The purple wire goes to the reverse lights and is only granted power via the white wire... when the gear is in reverse. By connecting the reverse switch again it's causing something, somewhere else in the wires that drains the batt. I'm going to unplug the switch for now and put this off for awhile, but just thought I'd pass along what's going on in case somebody know why or what could be the reason

I'd suspect that hacked-in radio you mentioned. Figure out what's tapped into the wires connected to the reverse light switch without authorization, and get it outta there.

_________________
一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan I will do that next chance I get, by the way with this uncertainty about these wires could this have potentially damaged something like the starter or ignition switch? I think this may have caused a problem with something in the ignition system. Too early to say without having had a thorough check yet, but I've gone ahead and unplugged the reverse switch in the meantime.

I guess there was a reason somebody cut these wires after all (sigh )

Try removing the negative battery cable. and as you touch it to the battery post, is there any tiny little spark to indicate a draw of current?

Do you have access to an ammeter?

Most aftermarket radios have 2 hot wires. Red to power the radio, and maybe yellow to power the clock and station memory. Some radios have a connector that you can unplug all the wiring in one motion.

With everything turned off and radio either disconnected or fuses removed, put ammeter in line with positive battery cable to test for anything electrical that may be drawing your battery down. make sure the doors are closed so that the dome light is off.

There "should" be zero amps draw on the battery. Test the dome light. Got a draw? this will verify the ammeter is working and connected correctly. Test the back up light plug that you suspect. Any draw? Hows about the radio? Anything?

What is the condition of your battery? New and fully charged... or suspect?

If there "is" some unidentified draw upon the battery, try removing fuses from the fuse panel. Either remove all and replace 1 by 1, or removing 1 at a time.

Most ammeters have a tiny fuse within them and are only capable of a maximum draw of like 10 amps. Careful not to fry the meter while it is in the line of the positive cable. NO CRANKING. In fact, turning the key switch on might be more than 10 amps........ Beware !!!!!

Thanks for all the great info, I will have to put this on hold a bit due to a big work load right now. But I was going to take another quick look this morn about the starter or ignition problem that I started having, I guess as another result of this Back up light issue. Something definitely overloaded somewhere, cause indeed the car is dead when I try to start it. The ignition switch inside works correctly on all other positions but when I turn it all the way right to crank ..it's total silence, no clicks , no nothing. I've got the back-up light switch unplugged and will keep it that way until I figure some things out. The battery is good and fully charged.

I now have to get my car to crank up, so I did a few test to see what's the reason or what's fried. I tested the the starter motor and I was not getting 12v there, when my DAD was trying to start it from the ignition on the inside. So I ran a jumper directly from the BATT to the starter motor and it powered up to crank the car, that tells me the motor is OK. Next I tested to see if the ignition switch was bad. I had my DAD again turn the key to start and hold it while I tested the yellow wire at the starter relay, and there a the relay I was reading 12v. This tells me that the ignition switch is sending the power up from inside and it is getting to the relay ..but from there it's not going to the starter motor. Still I believe this means my ignition switch is OK. This leaves me with 2 suspects, based on what I've read some say that the Neutral safety switch has gone bad or the Starter relay.

Does anyone know if 1968 Dodge DARTs 270 combined the back-up light switch and the neutral safety switch as one, or were they separate? It would seem to make sense that if they are combined, and I had been working on the back up lights, that maybe my re-connection and fixing of the back-up switch somehow adversely affected the neutral safety switch for some unknown reason as of yet, and indeed caused a failure of the safety switch which has rendered my car unable to start up?? Love some input on this.

If it is the neutral s switch how can I test it to see if it's working or not? Otherwise if the neutral s switch aint the cause then it's got to be the starter relay ..and I can just get another one of them. Does any of this make sense?

Ponder this for awhile gentlemen, and I'll check in at the end of the week when I hope to have more time to tackle it. Once I resolve this, I'll check the power drain issue, that was occurring with the backup light switch connected. THANKS Friends!

The sole function of the neutral safety switch on your car is to provide a ground to the starter relay. If 12V is getting to the starter relay from the ignition switch and the relay doesn't close to activate the starter then you're either missing the ground from the neutral safety switch or the starter relay is bad.

_________________
Joshua

Yeah... what he said.

12V at the yellow wire on the starter relay is good. Key switch good.

That relay could be bad, but more likely the circuit which grounds the relay thru the neutral safety switch is not complete.

On wiring diagram "B" (from an earlier post ), just to the left of the big round starter, you will see the starter relay and neutral safety switch.

You can bypass the neutral safety switch circuit (brown wire) to test the starter relay, but be DAMN SURE you are in park with the E brake set if you are going to do that.

Ultimately, that relay is just a switch to allow 12V to the solenoid, which is just another switch to allow BIG 12V to the starter motor.

Remember this vehicle may have had many owners and changes to the wiring (not necessarily for the better) including wire colors.

UPDATE: I went ahead and replaced the starter relay, since everything pointed to that as the most likely culprit. That was it! The car starts right up now just like a champ.

Now that we've resolved that problem, I'll look into why the starter relay blew out, and why/if I was having a batt drain ..and how this all seemed to be associated with when I re-connected my back-up, reverse light switch.

more later..