nuetral safety switch

orange150

orange150

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Fairfax City, VA
On Friday my truck wouldn't start, so doing the usual Ford thing i just used a pair of plyers to jump the starter solenoid on the fender until I had time to go the the store and pick up the $8 replacement solenoid. But of course, true to most things I own the problem isn't that simple. After replacing the solenoid I am still having to jump it with the plyers. So I am thinking the nuetral safety switch, or whatever it is so that the clutch has to be all the way in to start the truck is bad. Is there anyway to just bypass that or is it a simple fix?
 
remove the NSS wire thats on the starter solenoid terminal and jump a ground to that terminal. turn the key if it starts then its either the switch in the tranny or a bad wire.
I ran a new wire from solenoid to a switch in the cab then to ground. make for a nice anti-theft device.
 
Mike,

THe truck you have has an aluminum casting under the dash that the pedals swing from, over time the casting cracks and causes the clutch pedal to not go full stroke, thus also causing it to not trip the clutch safety switch as well.

Try pushing the clutch pedal as hard as you can (as if you were trying to push thru the floor) you may well get the truck to start.

replacing this casting is rather fun, as you get to stand on your head under the dash to do it. It's not really hard, just kinda tough to get too. and I don't think it is all the expensive either (dealer part, under $100 I think)

This may also be part of your shifting problem as well, this is mis-diagnosed quite often

HTH
Kevin
 
thanks for the info, I tried to pushing as hard as i could with no luck. I have yet to get down and look for any crack though. I hope to get this fixed asap so if all else fails I'll just run a fancy little red button to start it like i did on my orange truck.

Man I love this truck but sheesh, the first few weeks and already problems. Tough love I guess.
 
ah, I figured it out. when I crawled under the dash to look for borken aluminum, i found the problem. The NSS assymbly (i guess is what you would call it) was only half way on the hydraulic ram(rod, whatever). So when I pushed the clutch down it wasnt compressing the spring on the NSS unit. I just had to clip the unit back on the rod. But now I have to figure out how to keep it on.
 
It's called a clutch switch. It prevents you from starting the truck with the clutch out. Toyota was smart enough to put in a clutch start cancel button in so you could start it with the clutch out if need be. Ford, not so smart. It also turns off the cruise control if on and you push in the clutch. If you don't have/use cruise, I'd jump the thing so you can use the starter to get if off the railroad tracks when it dies and won't restart.:D
 
Mine ('92 F250 7.3L NA) did the same thing... as stated, I'm the only one that drives my truck, so a quick cruise thru TDS netted me a diagram to defeat the switch...

My only warning is understand that the starter has enough torque when engaged to completely over run the brakes! (don't ask!:flipoff2: )
 
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