83-86 shift light?

[rjjp]

I was taking an IDI apart at work.
But the odd part was the lights at the top of the dash, the one to the furthest left was a shift light, so my question is how common were the shift lights?

 

[FordGuy100]

Say what? If your talking about above the gauges where the 4x4 light, brake light, etc..are.......I certainly havent ever noticed a shift light there (even when semi looking to see what they said).

 

[CDX825]

My truck has it but its not hooked up. Its just the lens, no bulb, socket etc.

Ive often wondered what it was for though.

 

[FordGuy100]

That would be really interesting to get it to work...

Sounds like a neat project!

 

[rjjp]

Say what? If your talking about above the gauges where the 4x4 light, brake light, etc..are.......I certainly havent ever noticed a shift light there (even when semi looking to see what they said).

Yes, that's where I'm talking about, my 86 (gasser) had an emissions light there.
But the truck that I saw the shift light on had a bulb and wiring there, I don't know if it worked though my job was just to save the engine and trans from the crusher.

 

[FordGuy100]

Something like this?

http://www.kfz-relais.com/html/voltage_range_monitor_en.htm

 

[rjjp]

I'm not sure how the tach gen on our trucks works.

 

[david85]

I never heard of that either, but ford was experimenting with some strange ideas in the early 80s. Both my trucks also have the emissions sticker all the way to the right on the light set.

In theory, you wire something up to the tach lead of the ignition coil to work a shift light but I also wonder if an adjustable vacuum switch could do it. I wonder how ford did it???

Funny thing is, if every stick shift truck from that era had a shift light, we probably would be universally dissing them

 

[The Warden]

FWIW I think that the shift light was an '80-'84 thing...I think that '85 and '86 trucks got the "Emissions" light instead of the shift light. My original '84 bezel has a shift light, while the '86 bezel that's currently in there has an emissions light.

According to my owner's manual, at least in '84, the shift indicator light was only used with the 300 I-6 and the 4 speed OD manual. The owner's manual describes it as a fuel economy aid.

 

[langevette]

FWIW I think that the shift light was an '80-'84 thing...I think that '85 and '86 trucks got the "Emissions" light instead of the shift light. My original '84 bezel has a shift light, while the '86 bezel that's currently in there has an emissions light.

According to my owner's manual, at least in '84, the shift indicator light was only used with the 300 I-6 and the 4 speed OD manual. The owner's manual describes it as a fuel economy aid.

My '83 owners manual says the same thing. My old Focus had a shift light, sometimes would come on twice per gear at about 2500, then again at 5-6K
Matthew

 

[mabc926]

My 85 has a shift light, not working though.

 

[87crewdually]

I've driven cars with the shift light and medium size trucks with an engine overspeed light. BOTH more annoying than useful.

 

[Diesel_brad]

FWIW I think that the shift light was an '80-'84 thing...I think that '85 and '86 trucks got the "Emissions" light instead of the shift light. My original '84 bezel has a shift light, while the '86 bezel that's currently in there has an emissions light.

According to my owner's manual, at least in '84, the shift indicator light was only used with the 300 I-6 and the 4 speed OD manual. The owner's manual describes it as a fuel economy aid.

What he said

 

[david85]

Well, the "ford six" was supposed to be the most advanced transwarp drive of 1983. Just look at these commercials - they don't lie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAYYs5Jc_GY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keeFoI7LQyw&NR=1

 

[snicklas]

I remember when those were on TV..... you know when we only had 4 channels......

I also remember the one with the Slantnose Carrying a Dodge, and pulling a Chevy, or vise-versa, up the boulder hill.....