neutral safety switch necessary???

i will admit i dont have one (probably should) but i have never started the 29 without my foot on the brake and being sure the shifter is in park . of course when i was growing , all the pieces of shit i drove , i had to pay attention when starting and moving said vehicle .

 

my stick shift cars no, automatics damn right!there're to easy to do and very good insurance

 

having a Neutral start switch has another positive use....
When I built my car I ran the lead from the starter up into the glove box and added an off-on switch in line.... anyone messes with your car, it wont start, glove box is locked, end of story. thief moves on.

 

I didn't see anyone answer all of your question, so here is my attempt. There was a plug that did go on top of the switch. If you don't have it you will need to find one to make this easy. Here is a diagram of what the pins are for. You can forget about pins 1 & 2. Pins 3 & 4 will break the wire going to the starter solenoid. This applies to the AOD trans and not the AODE trans. I hope this helps.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but several years ago didn't our own Don Dillard (DRD57) get hurt a broken leg I think,when he started his Model A standing beside it and got drug because the car cranked in gear.

If memory serves me correctly he was about to do the Rod & Custom ego-rama.

I'm sure he can enlighten you to the consequences.HRP

 

Well a lot of votes for having a bit of common sense and hooking up the neutral switch in the name of safety for yourself and others around you. A few others who think they are too damned cool to do something that will help make the vehicle just a bit safer to be around.

I think that almost every one of old farts who has been around the car game for a while has at least one story of someone who reached in his car and started it in gear when he was going to show someone at a show how it sounded. Usually a dead lawn chair is the only casualty but there have been a few damaged cars over the years because of this. There are more of us who have reached in the car to bump the starter over or start it while working on it at home and had it start and run into the work bench or another car (I'm in that bunch myself) simply because we didn't think we needed the switch or we didn't take the time to run and hook up a couple of wires to the switch that was already there or we didn't replace the broken switch that we had bypassed with a jumper wire.

Those of you who have young kids or grand kids remember that they like to jiggle keys when they find them in the switch if they happen to get in the car in the garage when they are out there with you.

Come on guys, every lame excuse for not having a neutral safety switch on your rigs that have automatics are just that, lame excuses.

 

back in the early 60s in Lewiston, ID a very popular young man who worked at the local Chrysler dealer was facing a workbench with the car he was working on right behind him. Across the shop floor, some other "mechanic" had disconnected the neutral safety switch on some big wagon. The other guy hit the starter with to roll the engine over to expose the timing mark. Return spring was OFF of the carb, it was on WOT and when that guy clicked the starter - the car roared to life, drove directly across the floor, smashing into the rear of the car the first guy was working on and crushed his chest into the vise on the workbench. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital. As a sidenote, the first mechanic had the 'quickest street car' in town at the time - 38 Chev coupe with a 301 in it. John Jackson was his name and he was my friend. Neutral safety switch have the word SAFETY in them for a reason. Do not fail to install one and hook it up properly. Someday someone will be spared because you did so. Little kids climb into cars...brothers jump in to move them to make room for the relatives arriving.

RIP JJ

dj

 

I'm kinda with Porknbeaner on this one.

My latemodel has neutral safety switches, you have to have the brake pedal pushed in, it has a buzzer to warn if you dont have your seatbelt on, a buzzer if the door is open with the key in the ign, a buzzer if the lights are on, etc, etc...

I think thats all very annoying.

Fortunately, my '60 has none of that.


But if you dont trust your concentration, or the concentration of anybody that might drive the car, then yes, please put one in...

 

I look at it this way: the wiring in of a neutral safety switch showcases your skill as an automotive electrician.

Show us how talented you are; wire it in.

Another view: instead of excuses, or the "I'm too cool", "I know what I'm doing", you can just coolly KNOW that you have risen above the rest and have the better car.

Cosmo

 

No you don't need it. Just be smart about checking that it's in Park before you start it.

 

To my knowledge, no late model car with automatic trans requires you to step on the brake to operate the starter. It does require you to step on the brake before it will shift from Park or into Reverse/Park from either a forward gear or Neutral. I am not keen on the brake to shift switch either, but it does reduce 'accidents'.

BUT, as regards the Neutral Safety Switch, the ONLY excuses given are based on some emotional "no body can tell ME what to do" "I KNOW what I am doing, that stuff is for careless dumb asses" and so on. Well, if the ONLY person and/or property at risk was you(rs), that might wash, but I'm with everyone else who posted saying it is at best irresponsible behavior......and at worst borderline criminal negligence, to CHOOSE not to have such a simple device that can and does dramatically reduce actual and potential injuries and property damage.

Ray

 

I think its a mistake to treat any car as if its a harmless thing.

Its not.

It can hurt you.

An old Hot Rod can, and so can a latemodel with all the bells & wistles.

If you treat ANY car as if its in gear, you are being safe.


And nobody can accidently hit the switch on mine, because they dont know where the killswitch is...

Being able to re-start it without coming to a stop, if the cold blooded bitch stalls on me is kinda nice though.

 

That's why they work in Neutral as well as park

 

Are you sure?

I havent tried that...

And I know the rachet shifter on my '73 ( NSS hooked up for the NHRA Tech guys ) doesnt.

It will only start in Park.




Edit.

Don, you are right, I just tried it on my latemodel.

I did not know that... ( I've only driven Stick cars for most of my life...)

So then, yes you are right.

That takes most of the argument away to leave it unhooked.

 

Lokar, Gennie, most B&M, etc all work that well as well.

 

I always use a neutral start switch on my cars. I like to use the GM type used on the early 70's era Chevy/GMC vans ... it bolts on to the side of the transmission ( out of sight ).

About 30 years ago a friend test cranked his 32 Ford sedan ( without a neutral start switch ) ... and promptly backed into his wifes brand new deep freezer ... killing the new freezer and causing a LOT of damage to his fresh built, painted 32 sedan.

His wife was VERY UPSET about the loss of her new freezer and all it's contents.

.

 

I had a friend run over his own kid because he didn't have a neutral switch installed in his 34 Ford roadster. The good news he wasn't hurt but scared the hell out of both of them. You always seem to have your foot on the throttle when starting. Install it!!!!

 

I guess y'all know a lot of people who make stupid mistakes...


To be honest, being only familiar with stick shift cars, I didn't see the point up to now.

(I park those in gear too, not on the Ebrake, because I used to live in a cold place where Ebrake cables would freeze up and seize )


But I guess now that I drive a latemodel as well, that is infact untraining me to be carefull, I'd better put one in...

 

With over 123 THOUSAND MEMBERS here on the HAMB ... they are going to know a LOT of folks.

Unfortunately, it only takes a second of good sense lapse to have a accident or a problem. I used to be more alert and focused in my youth. Now ... I might need a little SAFETY switch

 

Yep...

Once you start to rely on a crutch, you'd better make sure its there all the time.

 

Bought a 37 chevy that didnt have one. Almost ran over my wife. Didnt take long to install one.

 

Required in NH. Probably for all of the above reasons.

 

I have always hated neutral safety switches....that is until I wired around one and some dumb a$$ hit the key on me. Damn near killed me. Even in automatics it's not smart to circumvent the switch. Now I always make sure it's wired in and working properly.

 

OK well the second part of the question was HOW THE #@&! do it go? is there a plug I can buy or do I just go to Kragen???

 

Yep, I think so

 

I was at a graphitti nite. The owner can reach his key from outside the car. So he sticks his hand in through the window and hits the starter. Figuring he can stand around a while longer while the car warms up. Yep, the car was in gear and it drove into the car behind it. Luckily nobody was standing between the two cars.

The couple of other times I've seen something similar, the driver was sitting in the car. So, yes, the car jumped a couple of feet but then you could tell the driver immediately stood on the brakes.

A person could have other things on their mind and they just aren't paying attention.

 

OK I get it now how to wire that bad boy up please???

 

Dude, look at post #34 - he explained it to you

 

You know it seems all too often when we hear about someone who gets crushed to death under a car when it unexpectedly falls, (I am sure none of them planned on having this happen), why?, usually because it was just too much trouble to use jack stands, or it is only going to be a moment and "it is not THAT BIG of a risk if I am careful"!

All the time I hear about folks falling to their death, probably not one of them planned on this either. Why does this happen? usually because of a dumb mistake or a momentary lapse in judgment.

So, take the neutral safety switch issue. If if the person who doesn't want to go to the trouble of wiring in a switch never makes a dumb mistake, or has a momentary lapse in judgment, everything will be just fine right?... But wait, dumb shit happens all the time, sometimes even to smart competent people..

When an automatic is started in gear, it is NOTHING like trying to start a standard in gear. To start with, when an attempt is made to start a standard in gear the offender knows RIGHT NOW. Not so with an auto, the engine will crank over easy, with no hint it is in gear, and then there is a moment until the oil pressure comes up in the tranny and the clutch packs engage before anyone even knows the car is in gear.

Usually this is enough time for the engine to reach several hundred or even a few thousand rpm so the car will lunge like a fat cop trying to snatch up the last do-nut when the tranny finally catches....

Get a switch...