rcdynamic88

I Recently bought a 1964 Cutlass with a 455 and a 4 speed. There is a brown connector with two purple wires hanging loose near the clutch pedal pivot. It looks like a neutral safety switch plug to me, however there is nothing connected to it. Should there be a switch similar to the brake light switch that would "make" when I push the clutch in? Is there anything that also checks to see if the trans is in neutral? Should it only crank when I depress the clutch?

rcdynamic88

Found a thread on here about this very subject. My 64 would not have a "clutch safety switch". I wonder if the car was converted from an automatic and thats why there is a plug hanging in that location. At any rate, its not jumpered out, and my car starts just fine. I just push in the clutch or make sure the trans is in neutral before turning the key.

oldcutlass

Are you sure they are brown? The only brown wire I know of would run from the voltage regulator to the gen idiot light. The neutral safety wires should be purple.

joe_padavano

Let's clarify a few things. First, manual trans cars don't have a "neutral safety switch". They have a CLUTCH safety switch.

Second, Olds didn't start installing clutch safety switches until the 1969 model year (likely as a result of federal requirements). Prior to that it was assumed that drivers were intelligent enough to press in the clutch when starting the car.

Third, ALL Oldsmobiles had the same dash harness, regardless of trans. The wires for the automatic trans NSS and backup light switch were present in all cases. Prior to the 1969 model year, if the car was a factory manual trans car there was a jumper installed in the connector with the two purple wires to bypass the NSS function. On 1969-up manual trans cars, that connector simply plugged into the clutch safety switch.