Please identify this device. I'm assuming it's some sort of relay with the capability of local manual operation?

 

Fyi that is 1974 only, but I forgot what it does.

 

Starter interlock override, only on late '73's and 74's.

 

Thank you.

 

Might want straighten that anti theft switch bracket

 

Actually I think the seat belt interlock was on all 74's and 75's built before January 75, not 73's. The interlock law went into effect in late 1973 requiring it's installation on all new 1974 models, but was repealed before the end of 74 so that it was no longer in any cars by January 75.

The interlock was a government mandated safety feature that required the front seat seat belts to be fastened before the car would start, using a sensor under the seat cushion and in the seat belt buckle. The under hood override switch was there to both override the system in the event the system failed and the car wouldn't start, and also for mechanics to override the system when working on the car. The system was so hated by the general public that congress repealed in October 74. Gas station mechanics made a lot of money disabling the interlock system before the law was repealed.

 

My mistake, gbvette62 is correct, the starter interlock was installed on all '74s and some early '75s.

 

Will do. Thanks.

 

I knew the history of the interlock well as I dealt with it first hand in 1974. I bought a new Trans Am in 74 that had the interlock, and my father bought a 74 Vega GT with it.

The Vega was kind of a funny story. The first oil embargo hit in the fall of 73, not long after my dad bought a new 73 Buick Electra 225. He was driving about 70 miles round trip every day to work, and this was when gas stations were rationing gas and you could only fill up on odd and even days based on your license plates. He bought the Vega partly because it was better on gas than the 455 in the Electra, but mainly to have a car with a plate that was odd or even, whatever was opposite of what was on the Buick. My father tended to do things like that, he didn't like to be inconvenienced. Eventually one of my stepbrothers ended up with the Vega.

A friend of mine had a gas station at the time, and I'd work there once in a while when home from college on weekends, summer break, etc. We bypassed the interlock on a lot of cars, including on my Trans Am and the Vega. When I got engaged in 79 I bought my then fiancee a very clean low miles 74 L-82 Corvette, and immediately checked to make sure the interlock was disconnected (it was).