How to check jump or bypass a neutral safety switch NSS

My 87 Renix wouldn't start. The battery was fully charged, but it wouldn't crank. The sarter was fine. I did some research and decided it could be the neutral safety switch. To bypass the switch, I did the following.

• Locate the starter relay just behind the battery. Its a silver box with lots of wires coming out of it.
• One of the wires coming off the relay will be black with a white stripe. Find it, and pull it off the relay.
• Attach a jump wire with an aligator clip to the terminal on the relay where you just pulled the wire from.
• Attach the other end of the jump wire to the negative battery terminal

You have now bypassed the NSS. Its that easy. See if it starts. If it does, you need to clean or replace your NSS.

BE CAREFUL - your Jeep will now start in gear. Thats a bad thing.

Here you can see the black jump wire I attached to the terminal on the relay.


Here you can see the jump wire going from the relay to the battery.

Your timing is perfect as mine is starting to fail. I can use your idea to start my jeep rather than towing it to my mechanics. How would you clean or replace your NSS. Thanks. Paul

pkbinder said:

Your timing is perfect as mine is starting to fail. I can use your idea to start my jeep rather than towing it to my mechanics. How would you clean or replace your NSS. Thanks. Paul

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Welcome to the forums! I'm glad the info helped.

If you search, you should be able to find a LOT of good info on cleaning up a NSS. I've never done it, but apparently its pretty easy and makes a huge difference.

I think GoJeep has a write-up on how to do it.

Search for 'neutral safety switch' (titles only) and start reading