I wanted to give the windshield a real good cleaning on the inside...so while the shifter was out and working fine, I figured I might as well take it all apart and give it the once over.









The pivot shaft is held in place and loaded with this spring style e-clip against a washer. The clip is in a groove and locks on with two little "ears"






Once that is off you can pull the pin and separate the base from the shaft.
The bottom of the shaft has a cap/plug screwed into the end. When you pull that out it releases the small spring and backup washer, then the internal shaft with the flag on it that engages the prndll gate can slide out

Whatever grease was in there had long since tried to return to it's native form (dinosaur squeezings?)




Cleaned everything up and gave it a new coat of slime,




Slid everything back into place and when to mark the gate for a 2nd notch and noticed that the flag part wasn't going all the way "up" in the drive/neutral slot





You can lift the shaft but the spring and backup washer were not moving past a certain point




Took it back apart and there is a step in the bore that prevents the washer from going any farther up




Second step down in this pic




Finally dawned on me that the shifter ball and the fine spring under the button at the top actually pull the inner shaft up away from the lower spring and into the drive/neutral gate



Without the upper spring in place, you can pull the shifter from reverse right back into first gear without touching the shifter button


Learning something new and useless every day
M


Just to close this off, cleaned and checked the switch mechanism.
If a car won't start in neutral but will if you move the shifter ahead towards park or back towards drive a little, this switch needs to be rotated to get everything proper again.





Sprayed inside with some electrical contact cleaner, ran it through the motions a few times to make sure everything got covered and then followed with electrically safe lubrication spray. If nothing else it's lighter since the removal of all the gunk.



Re-install on the shifter and connected a meter to get the locations correct.



The two large purple wires are the neutral safety, continuity in the park and neutral locations so started there
Set the shifter into park, rotate the switch until the meter showed continuity, snug up the screw closest to the front of the switch, then move the shifter into low (1) and snug up the other screw. This will make sure the arc the shifter pin is making is the same as the switch wants to follow.
Move the shifter into drive and then slide it into neutral and the meter should beep before the shifter is against the neutral stop and stay on as it is held fully against the stop.
Re-check park and tighten the screws.

The green and pink wires are the reverse lights, only show continuity in the reverse gate position

The pink w/white and pink (same as above) wires show continuity in drive (3,2 and 1) so they must be related to the seat belt reminder circuit but I haven't checked to make sure

When re-installed on the car, I'll double check the positions vs the transmission detents but I'm pretty sure everything is now lined up correctly.




M

 

Excellent, this looks like exactly the issue I am having with the shifter in my '72 coupe.
Thank you for posting
Greg

 

Huh... well I'll be. I didn't realize you weren't supposed to be able to do that. My shifter's missing that little spring between the shift **** and button and I always wondered what it was for since it didn't seem to affect anything. Now I know.

 

Mine did the same thing when I got it. Kind freaked me out at first. I kept dropping it all the way to first every time.

Great right up mooser, next time I am in there I will tear mine apart too.

Still a little confused on the "The pivot shaft is held in place and loaded with this spring style e-clip against a washer. The clip is in a groove and locks on with two little "ears"" part, but I am sure I will get it once I am in there.

Ken

 

The "stop" on mine works but the rest of the adjustment has never been quite right. Now that you've blazed the trail, I'm going to add this to my never ending list of things to do

 

I think he's referring to the two 180*=opposed metal tabs on the I.D. of the clip........

 

There's a standard E-clip like that one on the cable that goes down to the shifter but the one on the shaft that the handle pivots on is like this




Still fits in a groove but also acts as a wave washer to keep the shaft pushed over tight




Different little critter, easy enough to pop out once you can tap on both ends at the same time.
M

 

Perfect Mooser,

Clear as day now.

 

This is a great write-up! I have a 5 speed so it doesn't really concern me but I do appreciate a well done write-up!

 

Thanks for the kind comments.
Just finished up and added the neutral / reverse switch info.

Now onto the parking brake contraption...
M

 

Don't know what was more impressive, the write up or the pics. Nice work and thanks for sharing it. On my list too.

 

now that's a great write-up and pics,,thanks

 

Five Stars for Mooser!
Thank you for taking the time to explain and photograph the workings of the NSS in such an easy to understand way.

Can you tell me if the purple & purple/white trade places at your connector?



Or is this NSS switch connector after market and not wired correctly?

Thanks,
Pete.

 

Yes the purple and purple with white stripe wires seem to switch positions at the connector. (at least on the few I've seen)
M

 

OOOOKAAAYYYYYYY

I have a 71 4 speed.
My purple / purple & white connector is not attached to anything (and its hot when ignition is turned on)

wondering if this is normal on 4 speed models???

 

Terrific write-up and info! Looks good to boot.

Later,

Lee

 

Yes, your "purple" wires are over on the clutch rather than the park and neutral of the auto
M

 

thanks, Iam going to look into the shifter area.

 

I know this is an older thread, but good info is never old. This helped me immensely in installing a new neutral safety switch today. No more jiggling the shift lever to keep the reverse lights on. Great write-up and test info. Thanks, Mooser.

 

Mooser
Many thanks. Guess I'll finally hook up that Neutral Safety Switch.... Mine has been a Manual for decades and wasn't hooked up when I bought it.
This will help me buff-up my new-to-me used 74 shifter.