Eventually we will be gearing up to get back to work finishing up the swap on refresh on the AE86, I figure this should match the eventual lock out short shifter quite well. I also brought the trans inside for the time being, figure better get a head start, its wants to be shinny to and we shall let it.
Manged to get something done today on the DD Camry. Ever since I got it running again I've noticed it stay stuck in Park, has no brake lights, or reverse lights. As we have been getting plenty of snow storms and generally just not being safe or legal, it was a little nicer today so I started to poke around to investigate to see why this all didn't work. So far I've manged to get other little things to work like dome light, door sensor for the dome light, and the cig lighter aswell as the trans select lights and the key ring light. Slowly I've been wanting to upgrade speakers and convert lights to LED but havent let myself before I fix these other issues. After narrowing it down to either a brake switch or a NSS, i decided to bundle up and take a peak outside. Fuses were good, cruise was good so that basically ruled out the brake switch. Last ditch effort before taking off the NSS and cleaning/rebuilding it I decided to check the bulbs in the tail lights. I've heard of this causing issues but I don't recall ever being that lucky. I took all the bulbs out in both lights and went back into the car and low and behold, the shift lock was working properly...lol That was the issue the entire time, just some bad bulbs. LED conversion underway! Cargo light and license plate lights done already.
Picked these up for $10 on Amazon, really bright and crisp!
After pulling the cluster and inspecting everything whilst changing over the bulbs, I noticed as it were, this wasn't going to work. The Camry bulb sockets rely on a side connection exclusively and these LEDs are front and back contact only for connection. This was extremely disappointing for awhile but not defeated, I thought about the spare AE86 cluster I had laying around and grabbed the sockets out of those and they were exactly what I needed and fit right into the Camry cluster perfectly, thanks Toyota!
As you can see (maybe) there is no connection for a typical bulb once placed inside.
This one is the AE86 one as you can see the difference from the Camry one above.
And as you can see on the LED, this needed to be done as there is no contact strip on the sides.
It was a lot of messing around in the cold but overall I'd say it was worth it. Pictures not giving it proper justice aswell as it being a bit dirty still needing a good spring clean.
Before
After
