Reverse light not working

Hi all, I have a 1991 golf GTI cabriolet and sorting few things out as am going along, I now have a issue with the reverse lights not working. I have checked the bulbs which are working, bridged the plug with wire and the lights work, took the switch off and pressed the bottom of the switch in to see if that lights up and it does. Now the only thing I can think of is that something in the gearbox is not engaging with the switch that it's not making it work. Can someone point me in the right direction what I should do to make them work. Thanks in advance for all your help.

See www.brokevw.com Brian (not this one) goes to great lengths on this.

Reverse Wiring

Hi Briano1234, the switch I have is a metal one with 2 pin plug, should have mentioned this. Everything works as it should but it's only when attached to the gearbox and put in reverse it doesn't engage as of something should push the pin at the bottom up. If you know what I mean.

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Brian goes to length that when the Pins are worn down, they will work of the tranny when moved by hand but there is insufficient movement to actuate them when installed on the Tranny.  To be honest I have had that issue on my 81, as I only owned it for 20 years and 300K.  Jumping to my 90 Cabriolet, I never saw that issue either, and it only had about 79K on the clocks before it got totaled.  So I never had to take it apart.

My 92, and 93 don't count as they were Autos, and that back up light switch was in the Center Console.

Now on my 67 MG I had a Driving Lamp on a Bumper mount that I wired for a switch.  So I could see what was behind me on the country roads I used to drive on when reversing.  The Great thing was that when some A-Hole wold come up with their brights on, one flip of a switch and they would get the message.

If they didn't then when they got in front of me I turned on the 1Mega Candle power Driving lights hidden in my grille and my Cibie Quartz halogens on high.  I had quite a few folks swerve severely when blinded from the rear, and they got the message.  Back in the 70's when I used to drive in cross country rallies I needed all the light I could get.

Agree it may be a duff or worn switch, they are only a few quid and as you know easy to swap so I'd try a brand name replacement and see how that goes.

Thanks both will try that out

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Hi I ve been checking my motor spares store and on eBay but there are quite few makes like Febi, Inter-motor some random makes also which would you say are a good make and would be less problematic. Also is there a dealers  part number I could search for a genuine one.

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Hi all, and thanks for all your help regarding this issue anyway I bought a new switch and when I took the old one off the old washer fell to the ground and split in 2 pcs. Thought that's weird anyway realize that there were 2 washers on that made it hard for the switch to make contact. So put the old one back on and it works.

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Nice find.. glad it is all sorted.