Im trying to find a neutral safety switch for my TH400. The ones I am finding go inside the steering column and that is not what I want. I will be changing from a column shifter to a floor shifter (right rustynewyorker?). I am wondering if I can just go ahead and fabricate my own using a Mopar switch or a microswitch from Radio Shack. Has anyone done this?
This is a solution but not a direct answer Find a older Chevy/GMC van ( 1970 to 1972 or so ) and they have a bracket that bolts onto the pan rail of a Turbo 400 ... and you get the neutral start switch and all the right stuff to work ... factory GM engineered. I have one on my 32 roadster with a Turbo 400.
It has the neutral start and the backup switch ... but the kick down is a separate deal ... It is a simple matter to fabricate a bracket and use a jones switch to activate the kick down. I have never seen and GM kick down switch on the transmission ... near the shift lever. It is always at the carb or the linkage. Lokar sells this kit for a Turbo 400 ... neutral start and a back up light ... for cheap money.
The Lokar and Gennie shifters use a switch like your first picture, where a ball gets pushed by a lump in the shifter mechanism close to the pivot point of the shifter. For a kickdown switch on my TH-400, I used a lever action micro switch located on the upper arm area of my home-made accelerator pedal bracket. I adjusted it so it kicks on and downshifts it a hair before WOT. The long arm on the switch is made of springy steel so it can bend the rest of the way to all the way WOT without hurting the switch. The used micro switches you might find in junkyards for a lot of stock TH400 kick-down setups usually are kind of rotten looking and the wires and the protective rubber boots are old and brittle and cracked up or falling apart. The kickdown switch doesn't need to handle much current, but the neutral safety switch does need to handle a fair amount of current, and be able to accomodate the ~ 12 gauge wires that lead in and out of it. You might be able to rig up a circuit using a smaller switch that turns on a relay and run the wires to the starter solenoid through the relay instead of directly through the neutral safety switch. The wires that go through the neutral safety switch have to handle the current of the solenoid on the starter without causing a voltage drop. I think I used 12 gauge for that on the last three cars I wired up. I also used better quality SXL wire with the higher temp insulation.
kick downs are also mounted on a plate under the dash that the gas pedal bolts to the firewall with, and the arm contacts the switch to makes it kick down at full throttle you can find one of them go to this link scroll way down to item 79 they are not in order go figure any how there is the switch also a whole kit for the carb style kick down http://images.google.com/imgres?img...400+gas+pedal+switch&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G #
Wow, then would you mind shooting some more pics of it from different angles. Gotta see what I can make work.
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