1993 MX-3 V6 ATX Reverse and Neutral not working

[Newfie_dan]

ramps or a jack and jackstands are the best bet, use an old rug or cardboard for cushioning on the back while under the car. when I say manually shifting the gears I mean that you remove the shifter cable from where it connects on top of the trans then have your buddy move the lever on top of the trans manually from the P to 1 positions 1 at a time you should get reverse out of trans that way unless there is an internal problem in the trans. I am about 90% sure that the neutral safety switch is either out of adjustment of the shifter cable itself is, the cable adjustment is done inside the car by loosening the 1 bolts that hold it in place, you loosen those then push the shifter to the P position and retighten them while holding pressure against the shifter in the P position. You will have to remove the armrest and cover for the shifter to access it which is easily done in these cars. To see if the hold light flashes all you need to do is drive it and get it to shift through all the gears that you have, if the valve body fails or a shift solenoid fails to activate then the hold light will usually flash to indicate that there is an electronic problem.

[dlancelot]

Sweet! Thanks Dan, looks like I have some more work ahead of me (may have to wait till my next days off coming this tues/wed)...the neutral safety switch I can do alone, sounds like I'll need a buddy for the shift cable tho. I'll keep in touch as things progress. Thanks again for the quick responses

[dlancelot]

okay, he we go...I got elbows deep into the neutral safety switch, and found that the instructions on the K-103 page to be somewhat incomplete i.e. missing descriptions or pictures

Can you help me with the following steps?:

steps 1, 2 and 3 are simple enough...step 4 talks about a "neutral mark"...I didn't see a line on the "neutral safety switch", but I did see a few raised bumps that weren't labelled.

step 5 talks about a "transaxle range switch connector", do you have a picture of this? or is it on one of the pages? I can take some pictures of what I saw if that would help?

step 7 talks about connecting an ohmmeter (I have a DMM), but I'm not sure exactly where to connect it to (I can see in the picture where the person that drew the picture is connecting, however, I cannot seem to find that under the hood). Do I have to completely remove that neutral safety switch from under the hood altogether?

Sorry for the newbie questions, I just don't want to break something...everything seems so fragile under there

P.S.
I see some oil residue in the air intake of the engine block (around the bottom side, just a bit, pictures again?) and a bit of a gasoline smell, are these normal?

[Newfie_dan]

sounds like a faulty pcv valve causing the oil in the intake, as for gas smell if you are burning rich then that can cause the fuel smell in the intake. Now onto the questions the transaxle range switch is the neutral safety switch, they are 1 and the same, the transmission range switch is built into the neutral safety switch. The mark they speak of is either a small 1/8" hole on top of that switch that has a philips head screw in it or a raised flat line or bumps that line up with a mark on the shaft for the trans when it is in the N position, you will have to remove the nut to see it clearly on the shaft. If it has the small 1/8" hole then remove the philips screw and insert a 1/8" drill bit or something that has that diameter, it will align the internals of the switch with the case. Make sure that the bolts are loose that hold the switch down so you can swing it clockwise or counterclockwise freely while it is still on the trans. The dmm will have an ohm reading some are autoranging and some have to be set to the desired reading scale usually to the 200 ohm mark for lower readings.
Remove the electrical connector for the neutral safety switch then insert your test leads into the pins shown in the pic, just remember that the orientation shown may not be how it sits on the trans. Top left pin and the bottom mid right pins are the ones labeled A and H in the pic.

[dlancelot]

Okay, is there anything that I need to make sure I don't accidentally do when I'm messing around with the safety switch? i.e. if I was to remove it completely from the car (if this is possible), will everything go out of alignment then I'm really up the creek?

Here's pictures of what I'm seeing under the hood...I still can't seem to determine where that connector is that I'm supposed to plug the DMM leads into?:

I can see 2 hex head bolts here, I understand these are to be loosened


This is the electrical harness coming out of the neutral safety switch


I think the small phillips screw in the picture here is the one you were talking about that I should remove and put a drill bit in place?


So, do I test the end of that electrical harness in the 2nd picture? or is there something I'm missing at the switch side that I cannot see until it comes right out of the car?

[Newfie_dan]

Now you will not mess anything up by removing the switch altogether, nothing there is easily breakable, yes there is some crap in the way but whatever is in the way remove it if need be until you can access the switch, there is or at least should be only 1 electrical connector for the neutral safety switch, unplug it there should be 9 pins. Then do the tests as outline on pages k102 and k103. If you can not see the hole for the 1/8" drill bit then just do the adjustment where you loosen the bolts I lableled 1 and 2 then put it in the N position, remove the manual shaft nut and lever then rotate it until you have continuity on pins A and H as it says on page k103.

[dlancelot]

ok, coolio, ty! Sorry to be such a newbie, I'm a computer tech...mechanical stuff like this is a little deeper than I'm used to...and my mechanical buddy is out of the province on a work trip
I have tomorrow off, so I'll give 'er a good go at it tomorrow (hopefully it won't take me too long)

[Newfie_dan]

no problem we all had to start somewhere.