neutral safety switch

[tbirdblog]

How difficult is it to change the neutral safety switch on a 57 ?

[gbhrps]

tbirdblog,

It was a long time ago, but as I recall I put the 55 up on jack stands, crawled underneath and disconnected the switch from the driver's side of the tranny and unclipped its rod assembly from the shift mechanism. Very simple.

Then from inside the car, pull up the carpet, remove the chrome shield on the gear shift (automatic), remove the wiring grommet from the tranny tunnel and unplug the wiring connectors for the backup lights, etc. Shouldn't take 15 minutes start to finish.

As an after thought, open your old one up on the workbench, and see if it can't be made to work again. I did mine at the restoration and it was just full of gunk, that once cleaned has worked perfectly since. Good Luck!

[Jimz Bird]

I was just going to reference an old thread here by gbhrps from 2008.
Neutral Safety Switch

You can also modify it to start in Park. Good instructions in the CTCI Restoration Manual or buy one already modified.

Here is a diagram that may be of some help. Note the back two wires that go to the backup lights if you have them.

Jim

[paul2748]

You can buy one that has already been modified from CASCO. Don't know if the other suppliers have them.

I doubt you can do it in 15 minutes, but should be about an hour if you don't run into any unusual problems. For instance, to pull up the carpet you will have to loosen or remove the drivers side step (door) plate and to remove the chrome plate on the shifter you have to take off the ball on the end. A lot of these little thing take time if done correctly.

[gbhrps]

paul2748,

Don't know about the carpets in your car, but the one put in my 55 some 18 years ago sits freely on the floor and isn't fastened down under the sills. Simply pull it up from under the seats and fold it over the shifter.

Undo the bolts on the chrome shifter cover, a screw on the pointer and slide it up the shifter and masking tape it to the shifter out of the way. Why take the shifter all apart?