paintfreak

Converting 68 Firebird from 4 spd manual 200R4 overdrive automatic. Before the bashing starts, my dad bought the car because it encompassed his wish list for a 68...400, 4 spd stick, convertible,...only thing missing was the hood tach he wished it had. The car is no cherry, it was Frankenstined together almost 30 yrs ago, alot of things I have had to correct as well as completely rework the entire engine compartment,....including the engine. Just as I was finishing up, dad passed away. The only time he got to drive the car was the day he bought it and dove it to my shop to start the punch list. Soooo....now its moms toy. She loves the car as well and plans to keep it. Only problem is, she is 68 yrs old and manipulating an old 4spd manual around downtown Hammond. La is not feasible. so she asked if it would be possible to change it to an automatic. How ya gonna tell mom no, right???? So, we ordered an 200R4 from Butler Performance, was supposed to be everything for the swap. Not quite. had to get selector lever and cable bracket from a salvage transmission, ordered a shift cable for a third gen because i had a shifter from a third gen that would work fine. I wanted her to have a simple factory feeling shifter so B&M Megashifter is out of the question. Everything is mocked up and fit and working mechanically, but i need to figure out how the neutral safety switch attached to the shifter functions. I only want it to operate back up lights when reverse is engaged. i have the pig tail for the switch wit about 6 inches of leads to play with. I understand the light green wire is for back up lights but I cannot figure out how it completes that circuit. Any knowledge on how the internals of this switch works would be greatly appreciated.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Those three pages should cover every wire in and out of the auto shifter on a 91 Firebird. Any questions?

Good luck!

paintfreak

Thank you, Drew. I have seen a couple of these pages but one interest me a lot. I'll post updates as I move along .

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Trouble with most of the diagrams from the book, is that like in this case, there's no single diagram that shows all the wires into and out of the switch. You'll have a wire or two as part of this diagram, a couple others as part of another, and you just generally have to think about what the shifter would be connected to, and go thru the entire book looking for references to it. In this case, I just happen to still have my notes from rewiring my dash harness for a manual trans.

Anyway the back-up light diagram should tell you all you need to know for reverse lights. Figured the rest might come in handy for curiosity or other features you may want to utilize at some point.

paintfreak

Awesome. Thanks again. The diagram with the reverse lights is the one I could not find. I'm also questioning if the switch has to be energized to do anything or if I'm able to use the blue and light green wires independently to complete the back up light circuit.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Pretty sure it just makes/breaks the circuit. For some reason I'm thinking you can see the contacts on one side or the other of the switch. Thinking it's just a bunch of brass contacts that open and close in different positions.

paintfreak

We gonna find out this weekend.

paintfreak

couldn't wait. I could not get a connection of any two wires to make the light come on so I took it apart. As I was separating the plastic switch housing from the metal bracket I noticed one of the fold over tabs was not holding the switch against the metal bracket so I cleaned it up, inspected everything and drew a diagram so I could figure out connections. Pretty simple design. Everything seems to independent, 3 pairs if wires that link up in specific positions. Brown and light green are dedicated to reverse lights. After putting it back together, making sure it was evenly crimped at all 4 fold over tabs, I put it back on the shifter. Put the shifter in reverse and adjusted the switch. Boom.....reverse lights. Thank you for your help.

NoEmissions84TA

iTrader: (1)

paintfreak

thank you NoEmmisions84TA