I put a new shift collar on and a new turn signal switch in and somehow something is not right, the truck will not start. It has something to do with the neutral safety switch. Can I bypass it? If so, how do I go about it?

Thanks!!! tersing@juno.com

 

The switch looks somewhat like a gear selector at the top of the column. It makes contact in two places Park & neutral. If you were in the tube and didn't disconnect the sw. you may have broken it.

When I installed the 76 column in my 66 I didn't care about it so I never bothered installing it. 12 years later I am still driving it that way.

I can't help much beyond this point. I know where it is, & what it does, but have never played with one.

Someone else will be along shortly that has made one work with more help.




John

 

There are four wires. Only two wires are needed to make the truck start. I think the other two are for reverse lights. In any case, there are two wires needed to complete the circuit. One is hot and then one goes to back to the ignition for starting. You need to make a jumper that goes between the hot to the ignition complete the circuit. This can all be done at the point where the modular plug is. You can you a test light to find the hot (key on) and then you have a 33% chance or look for similar colors.

Mine was jumper-ed and I fixed it because the truck wasn't always always in Park/Neutral and I almost had a few mishaps!

 

Ah - This has happened to me.

To begin with: A broken shift collar. This probably caused the inner shift selector shaft to rotate too far in one (or the other) direction. When that happens the result will be - no ignition availability. The system does not know if you are in neutral or park.
- There is a clip (like a pointer) that fastens to the inner shift shaft and protrudes through the outer column via a square hole. Reach behind the dashboard along the top of the column. There you will find a rectangular switch (the neutral safety switch) that is spring loaded to move from left to right with the shaft rotation. It will return to the full left (park) position if the clip gets dislodged from the shaft. Normally you would think it would have to be Park - but if it's not adjusted correctly it won't be.
- You may hvae popped the clip off (I did) when the collar broke because it went past the normal travel rotation of the shaft.
-The clip may still be in place, but the switch may be stuck in a non-park/neutral condition. This also happened to me. I know because a nice police officer stopped me to inform me that my reverse lights were on whilst I was moving in a forward direction (~40 mph).

So - as you can gather, this switch does also control the backup lights.

My suggestion - fix the clip or neutral safety switch (it is really easy) and be glad you don't need to bypass anything in your great old 72 pickup.

 

Welcome to FTE

1967/77 F100/350's use the same NSS: C7TZ7A247A (Motorcraft SW600). The NSS also operates the backup lights.

1965/66 F100/250 2WD & 1967/77 F100/350: The NSS is engaged by the NSS selector lever: DOTZ7B097B / This is the same as the clip (pointer) mentioned by DesertFE in post #4.

This spring steel lever [kinda looks like this )--- ], snaps onto the shift tube thru a hole in the mast jacket (steering column cover). Its pointed end fits into the NSS.

When you changed the TSS, you could have knocked it off.

The little darlin' is notorious for doing two things: It loses tensile strength and falls off, or its pointed end snaps off.

Ford just obsoleted this lever, but there are 100's still available from FoMoCo Dealers, obsolete parts vendors.

If you need this lever, the closest sources to you (AR) that have some are:

LAFOURCHE FORD L/M in Lockport LA has 3 = 800-375-5547.

DOBBS FORD in Memphis TN has 4 = 901-362-6364.

PARTS INTERNATIONAL in Farmers Branch TX has 17 = 888-727-0418.

 

not only did i have to jiggle the shifter to get it to start, my reverse lights intermittenly worked, so i ripped it out and i slapped a wire nut on the 2 wires that start the truck, and the 2 wires for the reverse lights i ran to a little switch that i mounted near the headlight switch.