Can someone help me out. The shift lite on my 86 gxl turns on when I start my car but does not work when I rev or go.

 

i am talking about the stock shift-up light on the car

 

sounds like it gets a voltage when the car is turned on; i would assume its on the same circuit as most other small lights when the car is just started, but its sending unit isn't working or the wire is broken.
did you _ever_ use that light anyways? all the ones i've ever seen have annoyed the crap out of me and come on at the most inoppurtune times. my 91 doesnt have it, or at least _i've_ never seen it, and personally i'm glad.

 

Mine has same problem...no idea why =/ I personally liked it..

 

my 86 gxl's shift light comes one only at start up too but never any other time. i guess its worn out, the connectors. my turboII, the shift light comes one every 3500 rom when i shift...but i usually shift already anyway...until i get it running right..then drive it hard. im pretty sure its just bad soldering since its more then a decade old.

 

The ECU sends the shift up signal, so if it is coming on at start and not at any other time, I would be looking at the 5th gear switch being busted.

Not bad solder joints. If it was bad solder joints the car wouldn't run, because the ECU wouldn't be working.

 

so how would I go about trying to fix this problem. I am pretty sure it is not the bolb. unless it has 2 frequences like high beams. could it be the circuit board on the cluster.or the connection from the rpm to the shift light??

 

????

I don't understand what you are asking or saying.

So I will rephrase my earlier post in this thread.

If the bulb comes on, when starting the bulb is good and the ECU is sending the signal to work which is reaching the bulb so that rules out wiring issues between the ECU and the bulb, as well as the circuit board and the bulb itself.

Therefore, the issue is related to the inputs into the ECU.

The controlling factors for the light are the TPS, the tach signal, the neutral safety switch, and the over the top (5th gear ) switch.

So if the bulb is not coming on at 2600 (at low speed accell) or 4000 RPM at high speed accell, then either the TPS is not set correct, or the neutral safety switch is not working, or the 5th gear switch is stuck on, or the trailing coil is not firing.

 

In other words, get your hands on the FSM for your car, look up the ECU pins for all of the above, and read 'em out from the ECU, per the pin-out charts provided

 

yeah bitch! LoL
did it just stop working all of a sudden or what? sounds like 5th gear switch to me... did the same thing here a while back...
does the redline buzzeeper still work? if they both break then its something inside the cpu that like needs replacement like a resistor or capacitor or something simple... this happened to a friend of mine that knows about electronics...

 

The CPU has absolutelly nothing to do with the red line/low oil/low coolant buzzer. The over rev buzzer is built into the gauge cluster and tach.

 

i had a that problem then i found a vacume line had poped off it was one that was inbetween the altanator and the engen