What would be better is if they would tie the transmission's neutral switch (on manuals that have them) into the start circuit somehow. That same truck I mentioned has a neutral switch on the trans to cancel cruise control if you pull it out of gear. If they can do that, then why can't that switch tie into the starting circuit so that if trans is neutral, it bypasses the clutch requirement?? I dunno. Would be nice.
About to Bypass Neutral Safety Switch
- Thread starter JHouseJeep
- Start date
Yes, but. There are times when one might want to engage the starter with the vehicle in gear. *That* is my major objection to clutch switches in the first place. I have needed to do so once or twice in my life - its good to have options.
Yes, for that reason I like my factory bypass switch on the dash. I just wish I could further extend the bypass to automatically being bypassed in the transmission's neutral too since there is no risk there for a shop worker or whatever.
Check that a bit closer unless you know it has a neutral switch. The TJ manual cruise uses the clutch safety switch to deactivate cruise and the PCM. But it doesn't work the way we think it does. The PCM looks for a small rise in RPM which you also get when the torque converter unlocks which kicks off the cruise control. Problematic when you do an AW-4 swap and use the manual PCM.
We were building the rear axle for Garry's TJ that we competed with. I was pushing for 62" to get the width we needed for shocks. He kept coming back with 61 1/4". We went round and round until finally I'd had enough and asked why in the ever living fuck did he need it 3/8" shorter per side. What possible fucking difference could that make?
Well, you see, there is an optional hard line on Outer Limits and each time I've tried it, my rim hooks this little knob of rock that sticks out and stops me cold. If I could scoot that tire in about 3/8", I could sneak right by.
So let me get this straight, you want to make our life difficult getting these shocks put in, custom rim widths ordered, 5 times as much work as it needs to be, non standard goddamn axle shafts, all so you can sneak by one little tiny rock knob on a trail you run once a year that you do the optional line on every other time? Is that what I am hearing?
Yes.
Well, fuck me.
There is for sure a neutral switch on the transmission in my truck, it's right next to the backup light switch. However I knew the TJs didn't have them. I'm not sure what the norm is for the rest of the automotive market. There are so few manuals left these days anyways that I don't have much to go by. My last manual truck did not have cruise so it didn't matter.
Yea, I've never heard of a neutral switch on any (manual) transmission other than motorcycles! News to me - I've learned something new today...
It's sounding less and less like my setup is normal compared to the rest of the market. It's also different in that there are two clutch switches....one at the top of the pedal for an instant cruise cancel, and another one at the very bottom of the pedal for the clutch safety start. That one and its location ensures that the pedal is basically all the way at the floor before it will start. The cruise one is so high that basically as soon as the pedal moves at all, cruise is cancelled.
That's the setup I ended up with in my TJ - an additional clutch switch for the (aftermarket) cruise control.
The alternative is that he wanted them that width because he read about it on a forum.
Hard to fault a guy for giving specific requirements for something because of a specific limitation he's encountered.
I will always fault anyone who lets the tail wag the dog.The alternative is that he wanted them that width because he read about it on a forum.
TuckerMAustin
Member
Hey Jerry, can you help me with the nss wiring? I swapped a 32RH into my jeep that had a nv3550 and the last thing I need to finish is the nss wiring. Your help would be greatly appreciated! I bought the plug on the right to plug into the 32RH nss and the plug on the left is the nv3550 plug.
Tucker I'd be glad to help you but I don't believe I did anything for my 32RH converstion other than bypass the clutch interlock switch as described in your Owner's Manual. This is from my '04 but it should be the same on yours.
Clutch Interlocking Ignition System
Manual transmission vehicles are equipped with a clutch
interlock safety feature. With this feature engaged, you
must depress the clutch pedal to allow cranking of the
engine. To temporarily bypass this safety feature while
off-road driving, which will allow cranking the engine
without depressing the clutch, follow these steps:
1. Locate the instrument panel fuseblock behind the
glove compartment.
2. Put a 20 Amp fuse (optional) in the fuseblock cavity
(f20) marked as Transmission.
NOTE: A fuse is provided in fuseblock cavity (f19)
marked as Spare.
Clutch Interlocking Ignition System
Manual transmission vehicles are equipped with a clutch
interlock safety feature. With this feature engaged, you
must depress the clutch pedal to allow cranking of the
engine. To temporarily bypass this safety feature while
off-road driving, which will allow cranking the engine
without depressing the clutch, follow these steps:
1. Locate the instrument panel fuseblock behind the
glove compartment.
2. Put a 20 Amp fuse (optional) in the fuseblock cavity
(f20) marked as Transmission.
NOTE: A fuse is provided in fuseblock cavity (f19)
marked as Spare.
Did you get an older transmission? 2000 should have an updated park/neutral position switch (NSS) that uses wire colors violet/white, brown/light blue, and violet/black.
the outer pins in the switch's connector are the fused ignition power (run) and backup lamp feed. These are for reverse lighting. One is the power from the battery when key is on, the other runs to the backup lamps to turn them on. The switch connects those two pins in reverse only.
The center of the switch's connector is the wire that is tied to the starter relay's ground. This grounds the starter relay only when the transmission is in park or neutral. The manual transmission harness, as you can see in your photo, loops the starter relay ground back to an actual ground source so that the starter relay always has ground on manual transmissions. The interlock for manuals (clutch safety switch) interrupts the starter relay trigger (instead of ground).
So....the two violet wires on the manual transmission jumper harness need to go to the violet and the black wires on the harness on the right. It doesn't matter how they are hooked up, since the power simply passes through.
The center wire (tan/yellow) on the NSS harness on the right needs to be tied into the black wire in the left harness. You need to figure out which end of that looped black wire goes to the relay and which end goes to ground. Cut that black wire, and hook the end that's tied to the starter relay up to the tan/yellow on the NSS harness. If you hook the tan/yellow to the ground side of the black wire instead, you will end up bypassing the neutral/safety function.
If you swapped straight across with someone that had an auto, then you used their jumper harness that made it plug and play.
The clutch safety switch interrupts the starter relay coil positive. The neutral safety switch on autos interrupts the starter relay coil ground. The manuals have the starter relay ground permanently grounded via the looped black wire in the photo above, that needs to be cut so that the starter relay ground can be run to the auto's NSS appropriately. Otherwise the neutral safety function will not work.
The plug and play auto trans jumper harness the factory used is how that is achieved in stock form.
TuckerMAustin
Member
Oh okay! It must have already been bypassed by the previous owner because I could always start the jeep without pushing the clutch. I was confused why the manual plug only had 2 pins but the 32RH nss is 3 pins. (I am in the process of replacing the shift shaft seal as you can tell).
Nope no harness work was done and no harness came with or was needed for 32RH I converted to. It's plug and play for early TJs. All I did electrically was to plug in the torque converter lockup using the connector that was tucked into my TJ's existing wiring harness. I only bypassed my clutch interlock per the instructions in my Owner's Manual.
That doesn't make any sense.
How did you connect the 3 wire neutral safety switch up to a manual transmission jeep that didn't have a neutral safety switch, but instead only had a 2-pin weatherpack plug backup lamp switch?
It's only plug and play if you have the appropriate jumper harness from the engine harness to the applicable transmission.
It was plug and play, early TJs came pre-wired for both manual and automatic transmissions. I had to connect to the NSS/Reverse light switch but the connector was already present in the harness.
They can't come prewired for both because the grounding for the starter relay is different between the two.....they all come wired the same down to the jumper harness. Maybe the guy you swapped with switched the jumper harnesses without you noticing. The FSM literally refers to the manual transmission jumper harness.
It was plug and play from the perspective that the applicable jumper harness plugs in and makes everything work.
For the record, I agree the clutch circuit needs to be bypassed by the appropriate method for his year, which I believe is the fuse method on a 2000. Still, he's not going to just be able to plug the transmission into the Jeep, which is why he made this post in the first place, looking for wiring advice.