"Back-up lights and 5th gear switch" Location?

[arthurk33]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out where this switch is supposed to be located. I had a connector that went down the center console and wasn't connected to anything. The connector has a pair of light blue/white and white wires and comes from the fasten seat belts relay located in the passenger side of the car. And from the looks of it, it's supposed to be connected to this "back-up lights and 5th gear switch". Now, I found online that it's supposed to looks something like this:

Is this physically mounted to the transmission? I couldn't see anything dangling from under the car, but haven't gone down there yet.
Here's a picture of my center console/shift box with that connector shown as well. Maybe I'm missing something...?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Arthurk, that looks like the backup (reverse gear) switch on the transmission. It can only be accessed from below, and it should be pretty much the "most-rearward" thing on the transmission except for the output shaft. Without it, your backup lights won't work.

-Bryan

[SteinOnkel]

I just re-wired this a week ago. The wire colors for the backup switch are 2x green with a white stripe and 1x yellow.

[arthurk33]

Thank you all for your input. I checked it out and it looks like the previous owner used the connector that was meant for the back-up lights and 5th gear switch for the gear engaged button switch. Once I switched those connectors, the back up lights worked. Can't find the gear engaged button switch's input connector, but I'll go without that for now.

- Arthur

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Arthur, I'm not positive on a '77 spider, but on earlier model years, the "gear-engaged" switch was meant to sense when the transmission was in 3rd or 4th gear as part of the fast idle circuit for emission reasons. The switch itself is located on the passenger side of the transmission a couple inches from the oil fill plug, and it's often disconnected. The car will work just fine with the switch disconnected, unless your state has a requirement that all emission devices have to be connected and operational.

-Bryan