Hi all,

my first post here. Ive got a 1987 Trans Am GTA with a 5.0 TPI which is an exterior KITT replica (was already converted when i got it otherwise i wouldnt of touched a lovely GTA)

anyway, me and my dad took the car to get the brakes done yesterday and going up the motorway at about 50-55mph in overdrive, the car was sitting at about 15-1700rpm which sounds about normal, however the shift up light was constantly lit up on the dash, any ideas ?

also my heater matrix is knackered because water is dripping into the passenger footwell making a nice puddle, so ive been trying to get the cover off today and i took off some plastic trim to get a better look and found this. this plug fits into the socket but i dont know what it does and i didnt fancy plugging it in incase something went horribly wrong. Hopefully somebody can tell me what this is

 

That is the power antenna relay and the connector in question is for the power antenna motor.

 

ah thanks a lot mate, guess i will just leave that alone then as the antenna had been totally removed anyway.

anybody know whats causing the shift up light to stay lit on the dash ?

Scott

 

You have a problem with one of the following,
1. a short to ground between the ECM & the light.
2. a loose connection at the ECM at pin "A7".
3. a faulty thermostat or one with the wrong heat range

 

I'm assuming your car has an auto transmission. I do, too. One day earlier this year I was working on the dash and decided to pop lamps in all the sockets in the dash. I came out with the same thing: The SHIFT lamp would stay on while I was in OD. I've come to the conclusion that because it wasn't there in the first place, that it probably wasn't supposed to be because this would happen. Anyone back be up on this, but I believe the auto cars aren't supposed to have that lamp.

 

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to the transmission in his profile. On both the auto and manual transmission there is a slot on the dash for the shift light mainly because the cluster cover is used by both models from 1982 through 1992 with only some minor cosmetic changes. On GTA_Knight's car the shift light for the manual transmission is connected to pin "A7" of the ECM and known as the "shift light control driver". On the automatic version of this same car, pin "A7" of the ECM is used for the TCC solenoid control. The manufacturers sometimes put bulbs in these slots just to fill holes whether the slot was functional or not. My 89 IrocZ has a bulb in it and it is an automatic. I had a problem with it at first when I was driving it on sunny days and the light appeared to be lit. I later realized it was just the sunlight hitting the lens that made it look lit.

 

ahh right, that makes some sense now, when i got the car it was missing all the plastic trim and clear plastic that go over the instruments due to the knight rider dash, so i won a nice condition one off ebay and it came with all the bulbs in, i noticed some of the ones on my cars were missing so i put the missing ones in using the spares off the other cluster.

so you are saying that bulb is supposed to be missing on purpose in an auto car ? i didnt think anything was wrong with the gearbox because it was sitting at low revs doing a decent speed.

Scott