Neutral Safety Switch Question

[FuturaDje]

Hello there!
I have a question regarding my 62 Ford Falcon Futura. I have been working on my steering column and found that my neutral safety switch is there but is not connected to anything? The switch only has two red wires and not four like I have seen on new replacement ones online. I have a Ford-a-matic automatic transmission and have driven the car just fine with no problems in my shifting. Also, my car does not have back up lights. I am restoring it myself and have found the previous owner did some shotty work, Is this something that should be connected? see pic included. I would appreciate any info regarding this switch.

[Luva65wagon]

It would only have two wires if your car didn't back-up lights. Replacements may have 4 wires, but you would only hook up the two for neutral safety. It's pretty simple to hook up. Gotta find the RED-BLUE wire (follow the S terminal from the switch or backwards from the firewall connector... both being under the dash) and probably someone just pulled the male/female bullet connectors apart, removed the neutral safety switch in-between them, and plugged the connectors back together minus the switch. See, the factory put a male/female bullet connector into the harness between the switch connector and the firewall connector (again, BLUE with RED wire) and if it was an automatic they pulled them apart and inserted the neutral safety switch wires, and if it was a manual transmission just kept the harness wires plugged together minus the neutral safety switch - likely how yours probably is now.

With an automatic... you should connect and adjust the neutral safety switch. It may have gone bad somehow, or was so out of adjustment, that the previous owner decided "the fix" was to just pull it out of the circuit to bypass it.

Hopefully this made sense.

[FuturaDje]

Thank you for the info, it definitely made sense. much appreciated! Have a good one.