'90 525i manual trans, No reverse after clutch replaced

[mman550]

I just completed a full clutch kit replacement on my 1990 525i. Everything went very well except now I have no reverse at all. Pulling the stick to the left, it goes passed the reverse detent(lockout) then up into the reverse position but nothing; no click, no feel, no reverse lights, acts as if in nuetral. I bought the car with the clutch bad knowing I'd need to replace it, but the owner is a friend and said everything was fine with the car then it started creeping forward and as soon as he had trouble puting it into gear, he stopped driving it(no mention of any reverse problems). The only thing that comes to mind is the a small problem/oops' during the job: at the top-rear of the tranny there is a spring loaded pin holding one end of the assembly that is attatched to the bottom of the shifter. it went almost all the way back in but is still sticking out about 1/8 of an inch or 4mm(there is never movement at this attatchment). It does not feel like the shifter is pulling/pushing on any mechanism while passed the reverse detent(lockout) plus no reverse lights.

[e34_Jay]

When I did mine there is a switch on the tranny that must be on to have your reverse lights come on. As for it not going into reverse im not to sure

[whiskychaser]

All the gearboxes I ever worked on had reverse light switches operated by the internal selectors. But from looking at real.oem think you are in luck. The reversing light switch looks to be external and operated by the linkage. Try to forget where the gate tells you reverse should be and just feel for it. If you can hit it, at least you know the box is fine and its just a 'small' matter of the linkage. You might also have a think about the mounts - is it possible one is soft and the box is leaning to one side? If so you might not be able to get the lever over far enough to get reverse

[mman550]

Thank you for your inputs. As a matter of fact, both mounts were in really bad shape. I didn't change them because of time constraints on the clutch job but I will now.