Posted by Old Guy (216.152.14.109) on January 20, 2001 at 07:04:41:
In Reply to: Re: Column to floor shifter for real .... posted by Ken-back again on January 19, 2001 at 23:18:45:
: Willy hang in there. Were getting into a good discusion about the nutral safty switches. I hope we are all talking about the same thing.
: On at least the V8-C4 auto trans. It looks like a half circle about 4" around,slips over the shift control shaft flats and is secured by
: two bolts to the trans case and a nut on the end of the shaft. The housing mounting holes are elongated to alow a small amount of rotation for adjustment. as the trans is
: operated the center of the switch being a bakelite material rotates internal and makes/brakes electrical contacts as needed. You can very
: well have it on the column if the car has some other engine/trans combo.
: Ah this is what makes America!!!
Well here is my two cents worth, having rebuilt many C4's I can definately tell you that most of the cases are drilled and tapped for the switch that Ken describes. Depending on what vehicle the trans came from, some use it and some have it on the column. Being of ancient status myself, can't remember info as well as I used to, but am positive several Maverick's with six cyl. I worked on had the trans switch. The simple solution is to either get an after market shifter like B&M or Hurst which comes with the switch built on it or use the original one off any C4 that has it and using a multimeter, find the correct wire that makes or breaks a complete circut. Then splice into the small wire on the starter solenoid so that when the shift linkage on the trans is in nuetral position, the circut is broken to the solenoid. Try pulling this wire off the stud and you'll see that the starter won't engage. That's really all a nuetral safety switch doe's is break the circut, like water flowing through a pipe, turn off the faucet and it stops the flow through the pipe(circut). You could even get a switch at Radio Shack and make one to work on the shifter(has to be a normally closed type). As Forrest Gump would say, "Thats all I have to say about that"