I finally got tired of having people try to run over me while I was backing out of parking lots, so I decided to do something about it this week. I noticed a while back that the replacement transmission I bought for my truck had a reverse switch boss molded into the shift tower case. I figured that it would be easy enough to drill a hole in the boss, tap it and screw in the switch. For some reason, in my mind I visualized that all of the shift towers were equipped with this boss. I went to NAPA and researched their catalog and found a reverse switch for Kenworth and Peterbuilt trucks. Wow, if it was good enough for those guys it should be good enough for my Willys.

I decided that it shouldn't be that hard to mount the switch in the round boss. My first problem I ran into was the switch has a 9/16" thread. I had a bit of trouble finding a tap for this, so I decided to buy a different switch with a smaller shaft. After 2 hours at NAPA and 15 trips into the back we decided that I needed to stick with the switch I had. NAPA didn't have the 9/16" tap but they could order it for $7.00. It uses a 33/64" drill bit that cost $18.00 to drill the hole for tapping. You do the math, 32/64" is 1/2" + 1/64". I figured I could wallow the hole out enough to get that extra 1/64" of clearance with my previously owned 1/2" drill bit and save myself $18.00. I ordered the tap and decided to use my 1/2" drill bit. As it turns out this was not a good plan.

As you could see in the earlier picture, it drilled and tapped out quite well. I screwed in the switch and it shifted great. Now my only problem was that the previous owner of this tower had cut the shift lever off about 9" shorter, so I would need to swap the shift levers. As I was taking the second shifter apart I realized there was a flaw in my plans again. It seems the spring for my original shifter was much further down in the tower than the flat bossed one. What gives? When I compared them together I realized I was in trouble, the round-bossed shift tower was much taller than the flat bossed one. I'm not one to give up easily so I decided that maybe I could modify the longer shift handle to fit the shorter tower. About 30 minutes later I realized that even if I could modify the shifter it would cause the shift-throw to be way off. Back to the drawing board.

I decided it was time to get back to the original shift tower and make it work. I ground the rounded boss down a little more, greased the shift rod and slid it into place and then filled the hole and surrounding area with JB Weld. I let it cure for 12 hours in the sun. The rod prevented the JB Weld from running into the shift rod tunnel (Caution do not let the rod, stop with a detent under the hole or it will not come out), and the grease prevented the JB Weld from sticking to the rod. Then I ground the JB weld back down flat and to the exact height I needed to activate the switch. I drilled the new hole, tapped it and screwed in the switch. It fit great and worked wonderfully. I used some silicon sealant on the threads to make sure it would not back out. My transmission sits about 2 inches higher than it is supposed to so I had to slightly clearance the cover panel to prevent the switch from shorting out.

Now I needed to wire the truck and install the lights. I found a set of backup lights at Autozone for $3.95 a piece. They were plain and simple but I didn't need much anyway. I didn't want to drill any new holes in my truck because I felt it had enough to begin with. Instead I installed it in the old PTO output hole. I decide one light would suffice and I was right it works great and I can see just fine.

I have heard some discussion of late about WARN Overdrive shifter installation so took a few pictures of how mine is installed. Top View Bottom View