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| Step 3: teflon tape up the threads and assemble. |
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| Step 4: Install into the water pump. |
Transmission Wiring
Because our E-ROD doesn’t come with a transmission—of which there are many for the end user to choose—the wiring harness has no provisions for anything but a vehicle speed sensor. Since our T-56 Magnum doesn’t come with an engine—of which there are many it can be mated to—Tremec decided to use Ford connectors for their universal Magnum. In addition to the vehicle speed sensor, the Magnum has a reverse lockout switch and reverse light switch that we need to make operational in our car.
After visiting our local Ford dealer to find the 3 connectors we needed for our transmission averaged about $40 EACH, we hit Google and found a place called RepairConnector.com that sold the same pieces for $5 each. When they showed up two days later we got right to work on our new sub-harness.
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| From left to right: our pigtail connectors for the reverse light switch, vehicle speed sensor and reverse lockout switch. Each of these pigtail connectors except for the vehicle speed (center) will be integrated into our new sub-harness. The vehicle speed sensor connector will replace the Chevy connector on our E-ROD harness. |
Reverse Lights
For our reverse lights to function properly we found the RX-7 body harness wire that went to them, snipped it and ran a new wire to the hole in the firewall opening where our new harness will pass through. On the transmission, the reverse light switch is a simple circuit that is closed when the shifter is moved into the reverse position. We ran some thin wire with 12 volts of switched power to one side of the circuit and the other wire to the reverse light wire in the RX-7’s body harness.
Reverse Lockout Switch
The reverse lockout switch does just as you’d expect—prevents you from going into reverse. Chevrolet’s computers control this switch automatically by energizing it any time the vehicle speed is under 3 mph. Energizing the switch moves the inhibitor gate out of the way allowing easy shifting into reverse. Unfortunately the E-ROD doesn’t have this circuit in it so we wired the switch in-line with our brake lights. So every time the vehicle’s brake is depressed enough for the brake lights to come on, the reverse lockout inhibitor is also released. The idea here is that you generally won’t be upshifting into 3rd or 5th gear (where you’re most likely to accidentally mis-shift into reverse) with the brake on—you just have to remember to always have your foot on the brake as you’re shifting into reverse.
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| We powered our reverse lockout switch by tapping into our brake light wiring at a connection in the driver’s side footwell. |
