[RocktimusPryme]

My neutral safety switch in park apparently died yesterday. I drove the car on base to work yesterday. Went out to start it at quitting time and….nothing. I knew it had power because the fuel pump was coming on. No starter action though.

I was kinda panicking because I’m sure getting a tow truck into a military base would be an ordeal. I had the bright idea of putting it in neutral and then hitting the key. Fired right up.

Same when I got home. Starter turns in neutral but not in park. There are two separate micro switches on my B&M shifter for each gear select.

Anyone else have one of these die on them before? I found them for sale on Amazon and ordered a replacement.

[Scott65]

Did you check to make sure it was not just out of adjustment? Some of those microswitches have a slot on one end for adjustment. It's unlikely the switch is bad if it works in neutral.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by Scott65

Did you check to make sure it was not just out of adjustment? Some of those microswitches have a slot on one end for adjustment. It's unlikely the switch is bad if it works in neutral.

I have not pulled up the console yet, but my shifter has two different switches. One for park and one for neutral if I remember correctly. One doesn’t affect the other. That said I installed it years ago. So I may be misremembering.

[Scott65]

The ones I've used that have 2 switches, one is for neutral safety, the other is for reverse back up lights.

[i82much]

what branch are you in? do they have these “tow trucks” in the motorpool?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M88_Recovery_Vehicle

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by i82much

what branch are you in? do they have these “tow trucks” in the motorpool?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M88_Recovery_Vehicle

The one that just gets paid lol. I’m a DoD civilian. But I’ve contracted with every branch save the marines. Right now I work for the Navy and a little Coast Guard.

Honestly this is barely a base. A lot more civs than green suiters . But they still control the entrances. My level of relief when it fired in N was extremely high.

That makes sense about the reverse light so you are probably correct.

IIRC I had a hard time getting it to function correctly when I first installed it. So maybe it’s finicky on the adjustment.

I’ll open it up tomorrow and see what I can see.

[Scott65]

Do they stack on top of each other and bolt through the same holes on the shifter? If so, likely the upper is for reverse lights, and the lower is neutral safety. If so it needs a little adjustment since the same switch completes the circuit for both neutral and Park.

[RocktimusPryme]

Fixed. So it was technically out of adjustment but that’s because the entire adjustment had come loose. One of the mounting screws was loose. So it was kinda infinitely variable. The neutral button worked because it was closer to the center of travel. Park being all the way at the top allowed to switch to use it’s spring and push itself away from the mechanism.

I actually ended up finding several loose screws. Some of which were not user install but part of the as delivered shifter mechanism.

[Scott65]

Good that it was simple. You'll have a spare now. Though technically, in an emergency you had a spare with the second one.

[NeighborsComplaint]

If accessible top-side, keep a short jumper lead and a screwdriver in your glove compartment. Those micro-switches are pretty flimsy.

[RocktimusPryme]

Originally Posted by NeighborsComplaint

If accessible top-side, keep a short jumper lead and a screwdriver in your glove compartment. Those micro-switches are pretty flimsy.

I thought about that too. I mostly wrote the thread to point out to people that this is something to check if they are having starting problems.

It would have been VERY easy for me to have been out in the parking lot, changing a starter, chasing wiring, changing my ignition switch etc. Would have wasted a lot of time and effort when most people probably dont think of the safety switch.

[Rich D]

Had a problem years ago. Was in the flood lanes at a race and car would not start because of the switch. I wiggled the shifter around and got it started but almost lost a round of racing that way. Now any car I build for racing I have a toggle switch under the dash that by passes the neutral safety to get it started if needed. When your strapped in with a helmet and jacket on it's so much easier that way.