Gi Guys,

I've got a 1985 TransAM I'm in the process of rebuilding and I'm trying to get the starter sorted and have some issues.

Mainly with the cutting of the harness to install an OBD2 SBC and 97LT1 gauges, I need to find what these wires need to be wired to...

Yellow is ignition start,
purple is to starter solenoid
Orange/black appears to be to constant 12V
Black/white i think is ground
Blue=???
light Green=???

I'm assuming one is for reverse lights, and maybe the other powers it, but i got no clue, anyone able to help?

 

Hi Evil Stuie ,

The green and blue ones get connected together when in reverse to light the reverse lights .

The orange and black get connected together whenever in park or neutral , and are not connected in any gear . This lets the ECM know whether the car is in gear or not .

I will enclose two wiring diagrams I found relating to your question . In the first , all the way at the bottom of the drawing you'll see the ECM's connection to the neutral switch via the orange & black wires , and in the second drawing , about halfway down on the left side of the page you'll see the reverse light's blue & green wires connection to the neutral switch .

Good Luck !

 

Perfect, thanks for that.


From the diagrams and what you've said, it looks like the blue is 12v constant to supply the light green lights with power when the switch is in reverse, and the black is grounded and the switch grounds the orange wire to it when in park/neutral. does that sound about right?

 

Yes , that is exactly right . The "gear selector switch" as they call it , is actually 3 switches functioning as you have described , the third being of course the yellow and purple that control the starter solenoid and allow it to function in park & neutral .

 

Well that saves some headaches then.
Hopefully I haven't blown the switch putting 12volts into it from the orange wire, but I'll find that out tonight.


Thanks again for that, one more problem I can tick off the list.
Cheers.

 

Yep, all works great now.
It did take me some time though, but I found the blue wire with 12volts powers the relay/switch, so if you don't have that wired up first, the safety switch wont ground and let you crank.

Thanks guys, I feel like I'm finally starting to get more wins than losses with this build

 

What do I do with the yellow and purple wire it's got me beat

 

Hey man I'm have some trouble with this wireing I do not know exactly what to do with the purple and yellow wire after I cut them all loose out of the pigtail any help please

 

The wires coming from the left of your picture, are they coming off the gear select switch shown below? Also did this solution work? I'm having the same issue with a transmission swapped out of an 83 Camaro into my 83 El Camino. Having a hell of a time trying to hook up this switch with no OEM wire harness or schematic to look at.

 

Mine had a B&M megashifter installed when I got it, so the wires on the left are coming from the relay box that was hooked up to that.

Looking at my plug it looks like it would fit the thing in your picture.

It's not as complicated as it looks once you understand what it's doing.

Basically the wires are just grounds and power.
Ground is the black/white wire
Purple & Yellow Neutral / Park is a powered 12v wire from the ignition, the purple goes to the starter. So as long as the gear is in P or N, the circuit is completed and when you turn the ignition the power goes to the starter.
There's a constant 12v wire (orange I think)
Green and Blue are your reversing lights, one of them is powered the other goes to the reverse lights so when the gear is in reverse it completes the circuit

 

I'm putting a 355 carbed motor in an 89 RS. I deleted the ECM because of POs hac job in wiring. With no ECM do i still need neutral safety switch?

 

Yes...

 

Neutral safety switch isn't affected by the ECM, it's controlled by the shifter. If the car is in park it lets power go to the starter and the car starts. As long as you still have the stock shifter you should be able to get the neutral safety switch to function, they are cheap and easy to replace if the current one isn't working.