93 ZJ Neutral Safety Switch

[bringselpup]

Ok so 3 hours till a snow storm hits us. My reverse backup lights have been non functional since I've owned the vehicle. I found a new replacement NSS on Ebay for the fabulous price of $98. (vs the $250 local parts stores want for it) It arrived yesterday and as advertised it's a perfect match. With camera and tool box in hand I'm off.

More later.

[bringselpup]

2 hours later and just in front of snow I was putting away my tools. This is really not a very complicated repair. I myself had an extreme version so other people may well be able to do this in less time. I did my homework too, after finding this site in another thread here I went and looked the situation over first. http://jeepin.com/features/nss/

Jack the beast up real good to give you some room and use jackstands for safety.
I found my switch to be in pretty bad shape. So corroded I couldn't get it off. I stripped the threads trying to pry it as suggested in the previous link and wound up having to smash the switch to get it off. My jeep was running with an occasional need to wiggle the shifter to get it to start. So I left it alone until I had the new part in hand.

I checked the plug fit and it matched perfectly.


Since my vehicle was running fine and the real reason I was doing the switch was to repair the lack of reverse lights I made sure the switch worked before attacking the old one.


I turned the ignition key to on and using a big flathead screwdriver I slowly rotated the wiper blade in the switch just like it would occur once mounted and VOILA! at a certain position my reverse lights came on. So now I have a big crap eating grin because I know this is going to end well.

I go after the switch. Now I've looked at this before when I ordered the switch and the old one was so corroded to the shaft in the tranny I knew this was going to be a problem. With a small prybar and that big flathead screwdriver I broke the switch away from the shaft and got most of it off but was left with a metal ring leftover from the innards of the wiper arm inside the switch. The area is very tight to work on and the switch location is on the side of the transmission so there's no angle you can get on this thing. Some people like the person in the first link seem to be able to get the switch off intact. You can see in his write up he was able to clean it up and repair it. Others like me will have no hope and the only way to fix it is to get a new one. I used a number of different thing to try to remove that last metal ring from the switch and finally had to chuck a metal blade in a sawzall and notch it so I could then pound the screwdriver into the slots I made and break it off. It was somewhat brittle and once I had it slotted it let go pretty quick.


I had to clean up the shaft a little with a file to get rid of some burrs and then slid the switch onto the shaft. It's a tight area and I had transmission cooler lines in the way among other things. The problem here is the location of the switch. You can't get a clean straight on hit to it because it's up on the side of the tranny. The only way I got this thing all the way down on the shaft was by using a block of wood over the locknut and bracing it on an angle to be able to hit the wood so it would transfer some force onto the nut. It eventually goes down onto the shaft but you need to be careful because some of that switch is made of plastic. Even at the bargain price of $98 I did not want to bust it!

Once it's on it plugs in near the back of the motor and you're good to go.
I'd give this repair a satisfaction factor of 10