Just hooking up my neutral safety and reverse light switch for my hurst shifter. Anybody have any tips on finding the wires?

It's a '71 malibu. Anybody know what color the wires will be or anything?

thanks.

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Chris Dagenais
Saskatchewan
'71 Malibu with a home built 454!
"Because of my velle, i'm broke, cut, bruised, tired, dirty, sweaty, and loving EVERY minute of it"
My Page (http://www.ycworld.net)

Should be similar to my 67'

Follow the steering column to the firewall from inside the car. Now look directly at the top semi-circle of the steering column...you should see a semi-circular shaped block there with some plugs attached...I think the wire is thick purple for some reason but cant remember.
Easy test is to pull the plug and try to start the car......now wire that plug into your neutral safety switch.

As Dave said the original backup switch/neutral safety switch will be at the base of the steering column, on top. The neutral safety switch wires will be heavy 10 guage purple, and the reverse light switch wires will be light green, smaller guage around 14/16. Extend the two purple wires to the neutral safety switch, and the two lt green to the reverse light switch. It doesnt matter which terminal of the switch either wire goes to.

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Dave (NY)
70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv
72 chevelle
TC member #493
Never forget Earnhardt!

[This message has been edited by drptop70ss (edited 05-23-2001).]

Sweet if that's how it's set up I should have no problem hooking it up.

Now my only concern is my shifter. I got the vmatic2 shifter that is meant for a camaro console because that's what I have in my '71. However it's meant to use the stock neutral safety switch (I had to buy one separately) and I just hope the mechanism for activating the switch is on my shifter! I can't really see them using a different piece but with my luck... http://www.chevelles.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

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Chris Dagenais
Saskatchewan
'71 Malibu with a home built 454!
"Because of my velle, i'm broke, cut, bruised, tired, dirty, sweaty, and loving EVERY minute of it"
My Page (http://www.ycworld.net)

Chris that little teeny boxy thing attached to your shifter is exactly what you will use

Ya dave that's the piece I had to buy because mine didn't come with one.

On the plate that has the gear stops on it, there are a few bumps that contact the switch to activate the neutral safety etc, i'm just not sure if mine has those or not because it wasn't meant to use it. I have my fingers crossed and will find out tonight!

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Chris Dagenais
Saskatchewan
'71 Malibu with a home built 454!
"Because of my velle, i'm broke, cut, bruised, tired, dirty, sweaty, and loving EVERY minute of it"
My Page (http://www.ycworld.net)

DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN!!! Would you believe that my shifter does not have the bumps to activate the neutral safety switch!!! I can't freakin believe they would not put those in the ones meant for a camaro console. Now i'm gonna have to take my shifter out and tack weld some bumps onto it or something, which will surely void my warranty, GRRRR I am not impressed with hurst right now.



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Chris Dagenais
Saskatchewan
'71 Malibu with a home built 454!
"Because of my velle, i'm broke, cut, bruised, tired, dirty, sweaty, and loving EVERY minute of it"
My Page (http://www.ycworld.net)

Chris,
I cannot believe that there are not provisions for the switch on the shifter! That is terrible. I have never used the hurst shifter, but was it really designed to use the backdrive linkage for the original factory switch on the column? All B/M shifters I have used had the two microswitches mounted right on the shifter, which is much easier to deal with. Sounds like a raw deal from hurst.

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Dave (NY)
70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv
72 chevelle
TC member #493
Never forget Earnhardt!

The thing is that this shifter is meant to be a drop in shifter for a '73 - '78 camaro, using the nothing but original equipment except for the shifter itself. Therefor ya it's meant to use the backdrive system. To bad that in my chevelle that won't work, I have the camaro console but i'm not running the linkage to the column. I couldn't believe they didn't have the provisions for the shifter.

Oh well, 2 holes and 2 rivets later and I have a neutral safety switch mounted on my shifter. Now I just have to stick it back in the car and hook up the wires and it should be functional.

On a positive note I really do love the shifter, it's by far the best shifter i've ever used and being able to switch between regular mode and ratchet mode just plain kicks booty http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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Chris Dagenais
Saskatchewan
'71 Malibu with a home built 454!
"Because of my velle, i'm broke, cut, bruised, tired, dirty, sweaty, and loving EVERY minute of it"
My Page (http://www.ycworld.net)