I have been searching for hours to the answer for this...

I have the Painless harness # 60102 for 86-89 TPI. Reading the Installation manual, it tells how to wire the VSS for an automatic trans that has Park/neutral and or neutral safety switches. I also have the 86-89 VSS from Painless. On the painless harness the VSS must be hooked to the Park/neutral switch for an automatic. I gives no intruction on how to wire for a manual trans.

I am installing into an 82 Trans Am with a plain jane 4spd manual trans with no neutral safety, no reverse light, no park switch.

The VSS has 2 white wires coming out, that the insert says can be hooked to either wire that feeds the ecm, one is ground.

How do I wire the VSS in this case?

 

Ok! Well let's see if anyone can get this one.

I found that I can wire a clutch safety switch through the neutral switch.
So, on an 82 F-body with a 4spd, where would a neutral safety switch go?

 

If you got the VSS from Painless it should have 2 wires. One goes to ground and one goes to the ECM wire marked VSS. It doesn't make any differance which wire goes to ecm and which wire goes to ground. The VSS wires won't have anything to do with the Park/Neutral switch.

"I found that I can wire a clutch safety switch through the neutral switch.
So, on an 82 F-body with a 4spd, where would a neutral safety switch go?"

You would hook the wires in the painless harness marked for the neutral switch, to wire the clutch safety switch. There will be NO neutral switch on your set-up. You must use a std trans chip in the ECM.

 

Indeed!

It wasn't that I needed to know how the VSS gets wired, but how the painless harness connects to the switches, since I didn't have one.

If I wire the clutch safety switch to the wires for the NSS, won't the computer interpret park/neutral every time I push the clutch in?

I burned my chip as a manual trans.

Also, the Painless rep. said use a toggle switch to break the connection for the park/neutral. Turn it on while starting/sitting, off while driving.

Apparently lots of solutions...

 

With a standard trans chip, it doesn't look for the Park/Neutral signal. Painless rep is right if you use an automatic, but it is not needed for a standard transmission, as long as you are using the correct chip.

 

Ok...

So, just so I understand. Since I burned my chip as a manual, I don't need to really do anything, just hook up the VSS and go? I'm really not trying to overthink or even be dense, I'm just trying to make sure I understand perfectly what I need to do.

You say it won't look for the park/neutral, so if I leave the wires unhooked, it won't throw a code? Or if I wire the two together like the manual says it will ignore it because it isn't looking for the p/n switch?

I burned the arap/6E as manual marked as set. I didn't know what that entailed, if I had I guess I would have known the answers to all this.

Thanks!!

 

You can just hook up the vss and go. The neutral/clutch safety switch has to be hooked up tho or the starter won't engage. You can do anything with the p/n switch because the ecm isn't going to look for it.