I have a 76 F150 w/ a 360. This weekend a buddy and replaced the steering column in the truck. Before I changed the SC the truck starts and runs fine.
After changing the SC the truck had power but would not start.

The old SC had a Neutral Safety Switch on it and the one got of a junk yard did not. So I cut the plug off the old SC and left it plugged in and just relayed the wires. Connecting the two red wires together and the two black wires together. Creating a loop. Then the truck started. So I took it for a drive and everything went well. Got it home and parked it. About an hour later try to go start it and it won't turn over. Has a little bit of power but won't turn over. So I put the battery on a charger for a few hours. Then it starts right up. Left it running for about 30 min. giving the alt. enough time to charge the battery or to see if it would anyways. And no problems. Shut of the truck and restarted. Did that about 5 times. No problems.
Got up this morning to start the truck and turned over real slow about 4 or 5 times. And the metal lines coming from the master cylinder starting smoking up and got REAL HOT. I took the key out of the ignition and the truck kept on wanting to turn over real slow about two or three more times before it stopped.

After all that happened I have no power to the truck at all. The battery is fully charged. Has a new Cylinoid. This is some wierd stuff and don't know where to start.

Could wiring the NSS the way I did have an effect on what is going on?
Oh yeah, I have never seen the Master cylinder lines get hot before, didn't think they were supposed to do that, any takes on that one?

Anyways, if anyone could lend any knowledge I would greatly appreciate it!!

 

What is an SC ?

Btw, "Solenoid" or starter relay.

 

Steering Column

 

Okay that's better.

You probably took the coulmn out of a 78/79 TRuck.


The NSS was moved to the transmission in 1978.

My suggestion ...If you don't know wiring ..don't fool with it.

Okay so lets gets this fixed.

I need to know what colour wires you fooled with and what you actually did .

 

Okay there are four wires. two wires are red w/ blue stripe. and the other two wires are black with red stripe. I connected the red w/ red and the black w/black. These are the wires from the harness that went to the NSS on the old SC.

Just for an FYI the colors of the wires coming out of the harness going into the truck are:
3 red w/blue stripe
2 black w/ red stripe
1 white w/ black stripe

 

Here is a schematic of your switch.

For what it is worth.

Instead of doing what you did ...all you had to do was insert a sheet metal screw enough in the switch to move the movable part of the switch to the Park or Neutral position to defeat the circuit.

Now you have to put all those wires back to their original position.

 

Is there any way to by pass the NSS? I don't have access to the NSS any longer. Trash went out today. The old SC was junk. Even if I did it wouldn't work with the current steering column anyhow.

Even if defeated the circuit by doing what you said I still had to unplug the harness to put the new SC in. By doing so the NSS was not plugged in and it wouldn't let me start the truck. So I cut the wires from the old SC and plugged the harness back in the wired the wires the way I did. Right of the bat it worked. The truck started but now nothing and I have a feeling it is causing elec. problems w/ the truck.

 

You can attach the NSS part of the harness but any other wires are powered.

Backup lights ( power to one all the time)

Brake lights (power to one all the time)

PRNDL light (HL switch)

This is what you had.



Is this what you have on the column now?

 

Yes, I didn't cut that, that plugged right up.
It is a little black harness with three metal cylidrical prongs (male) and one insert for the metal prong(female). that is the one that came of the SC. The other half of the harness that is wired to the truck is the opposite, has three female ends and one male end. Am I making any sense?
Just to let you know. Thank you for your patience!

 

Okay so what can I do with the four wires from the NSS?

 

Two of them can go together. (The Red/Blue one)They are for the NSS circuit
By attaching them together you are completing the safeyy circuit to be able to crank the starter
Just be careful to be in either N or P when starting the engine

The other two..

One is powered with the key on
The other receives the power when the switch is moved to the R position (On Gearshift) turning on the back up lights.

Those you leave taped up or install a manual switch.

 

If the engine is turning over slowly and your brake lines are smoking, it sounds like the current from the starter is trying to get back to the battery through the brake lines.
You probably lost the ground cable between the battery and the engine.

 

Can you rehost that image? I know it's an old post, but while removing the mess of wires the previous owner of my truck had done, I inadvertently removed his bypass of the neutral safety and can't figure out what he did. FWIW I tried hooking the switch back up, to try the screw trick, but it must be bad.