use a freaking neutral safety switch

When I was 18 I almost killed myself with a combo of no neutral safety, bad ground cable, and sticky ignition switch. Since then I make sure I have one in good working order on all my cars.

 

Your argument is full of holes - if an automatic dies while in gear, bump it into neutral to start it. A pretty simple thing to wire up, adds virtually no weight to the car and could save a lot of damage and injury, possibly death. Doing something without thinking happens - having a bad day with the wife, dog dies, spun out about something, takes a second to run yourself over. Anybody else ever drive your cars? Are they used to automatics having a neutral switch? Will they think to put their foot on the brake every time? Too many variables to argue against something so simple to install.
Rant over.

 

Im not saying anyone shouldnt use a neutral saftey switch but weather you have one or not you should never start the car from anywhere other than the drivers seat. If your gonna get out of the car and leave it running you should set the e-brake.

Isnt this all just common sense?

 

X's 2

 

I have never understood this. How is starting the car in gear any different with an automatic than it is with a manual? Even if the manual has a switch requiring the clutch to be disengaged, if the car is in gear something is going to happen when you take your foot off the pedal.

 

Saw this first hand.
Absolutely beautiful show car. One end if the isle feature cars, huge display OT but nice.
Custom everything, including the steering column where the NSS used to be and floor shifter that was once tied to it.
Big blown olds motor all polished mega buck car.
Crazy custom paint, tilt front end, you get the picture.

Rolled it out of the enclosed trailer and got distracted answering questions at small local car show.

Squirt bottle for a dose of fuel in the scoop, reached thru the window, smashed into a tree.

 

A manual transmission if left in gear will make the car lurch as soon as you try to start it, and it may or may not be able to start and drive away (depends what gear it's in)

An automatic trans has a torque converter, which will let the engine spin and start, then when it gets up to speed it will grab and start driving away.

Carmakers were aware of this since the time they started making auto transmissions, they've always had neutral safety switches in the original installation.

 

So how can ANYBODY say anything positive about not having a neutral safety switch???

 

[QUOTE
Isnt this all just common sense?[/QUOTE]

That's the problem with common sense. It's just not that common...

Brian

 

Like a rifle without a safety.

One day...one day...

 

There's no "slight" pause. If by "slight" you mean 1 second, that's not a hell of a lot. I started my T, when I was building it, without the switch and there was NO hesitation! Luckily, I was in it when it happened.

 

didn't have one in my truck when i bought it. got the crap scared out of me one day while working on the wiring and it came to life and started moving. There is now a switch on it.

Have several people I know who didnt have one and crashed vehicles in garages.

 

you could always wire it up so the brakes had to be on to start it via the brake switch, But then again i will have a low oil pressure cutout on my hotrod too

 

I need to make a list here.
So I know how to guage reliability of other posts that I see.

 

Not that I engineered it, but my '51 Pontiac wagon and '48 Pontiac convert both have the brake interlock as well as nuetral safety switch. After starting in par, can't get 'em in gear without your foot on the brake. Courtesy of GM...

Brian

 

This is a good thread because it makes you think about this stuff. Neutral safety switches are something that you never really think about when driving your car you just drive it, but could be something very easy to forget when building a car. I personally have driven cars that will ONLY ever start in park.

 

My 56 lit up real easy once with 3:11 first gear and 4:56 out back. I was in one of those hurry hurry lets go state of mind when I did that .

 

brake!

 

Always liked the Neutral option - ya never know when you might want to restart the car while it is stil moving.l

 

Putting your foot on the brake before starting any vehicle just seems so natural to me , I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't .

 

The '42 has a Blown 540 with a Lenco, it will have a clutch safety switch as that kinda power on the loose is just simply stupid!

 

I agree.

 

The same thing as the OP sorta happened to me but it wasn't my fault and I wasn't there. I had my 49 Dodge Wayfarer sectioned custom at a body shop having a new pancake hood made. Before bringing it there I had just finished putting a new wiring harness in and everything was hooked up fine. The day before picking it up the boneheads working on it tried to start it after it was there for a couple weeks. For whatever reason the idiot cut my harness and ran extension wires under the hood with a remote switch to start it while playing with the carb. Yup, they started it in gear and it shot across the lot into the shop owners car. Needless to say I didn't pay them for the job and took my car. I was so disgusted over it after all the time and money spent that I put a cover over it and buried it in the corner of my building never to work on it again. That was 5 or so years ago and that shop is out of business now.

 

and airbags, you really MUST put airbags in your hot rod!


*sigh*

This is NOT the country I was born in.....

 

I actually have a ritual that I go through before starting anything. Foot on brake or depress clutch if its a standard I make sure it is in neutral an auto I shoot for park or neutral and foot on brake.

I normally say that a neutral switch isn't necessary but I am wirng them into all my automatic stuff as I go along. I haven't gotten to the point of thinking I need one for a clutch car but maybe I will start putting a clutch switch on them as well.

I don't think that everyone was taught to drive the same. When I was taught to drive I was taught to either depress the brake or the clutch when starting a car. But when I learned to drive folks were still driving cars that didn't have lots of automatic saftey devices.

"Oh the times they are achangin'" [Dylan]

 

That was a big no-no where I worked.

Always put your foot on the brake when starting

 

This is a no brainer, I solved the problem in the past by having the start switch powered by the brake light power ckt. No foot on the brake ,no starter power. This works with manual transmissions as well as automatic transmissions with a neutral safety switch.

.................Jack

 

That may work ok too, but it's hard to relight the fire at freeway speeds if the need arises.

Neutral safety switch = good idea

 

I didn't realize there were people who started cars without their foot on the brake? It's just one of those things you do so much you done even have to think about it. It's like parking a standard and setting the emergency brake, common safety sense.

 

I never thought of doing it that way. I wonder if that would pass tech for a neutral switch at the track.

I know that this is not a conversation about racing but the thing that gets me at some unsanctioned tracks is that they will require a neutral saftey switch but not require a reverse lockout.

I do actually try to keep a fire extinguisher in my cars but for the sake of arguement and just to be a smart ass, no I don't have to have one because you have one.