Neutral Safety Switch Driving Me Nuts

[Axxe]

So I short the two cables that the Bentley tells me to short to start my auto car with a 5-spd conversion. Nothing. Infact, the only way I can start the car is if I plug the automatic shifter back up. Pain in the ass. Anyone do the swap (325i) and know which wires I need to short out?

[James Crivellone]

grab a volt meter, and check for continuity on the auto shifter harness

should have 4 wires, ground, P/N Safety, Light, and Reverse.


See which two pins short when the shifter is in Park/Neutral, short those on the harness to start the car.

I would take a picture of my harness that I built to use the factory wiring, but its dark outside to get a decent picture

[Digitalwave]

I had to twist 3 wires to get mine to start.

Did you guys get your reverse lights to work, or do you have to wire a swich and do it manually?

[James Crivellone]

I had to twist 3 wires to get mine to start.

Did you guys get your reverse lights to work, or do you have to wire a swich and do it manually?

My reverse lights, lighted shift knob and neutral bypass all work great =)

took me about 10 minutes to solder up a harness

[Bill 84 318i]

I just spliced a few wires together that was kinda easy to figure out from the Bentley manual.

My reverse lights work. You just need to take the blue/white and get it some power so that the circuit is completed when you put it in reverse. I think anyway, I forget exactly what I did. Cause Eric was my bitch and did it for me while I looked in the Bentley.

[Digitalwave]

I had to twist 3 wires to get mine to start.

Did you guys get your reverse lights to work, or do you have to wire a swich and do it manually?

My reverse lights, lighted shift knob and neutral bypass all work great =)

took me about 10 minutes to solder up a harness

I thought there was no way around the neutral bypass so you could use cruise control unless you basically just wired it to a switch?

Do you guys recall which wires to connect for the reverse lights?

[Bill 84 318i]

To get cruise to work, all you have to do is take out a green/red wire underneath the dash by the driver's kickpanel. It's a lone wire with a single connector (and the only one like that, that I could see). But then you gotta rig up your clutch shutoff switch for it (which I never bothered to do).

None of this matters, since my cruise cable has since snapped and I need to get a whole new unit to replace it.

Here's my awesome wiring job.

[James Crivellone]

I had to twist 3 wires to get mine to start.

Did you guys get your reverse lights to work, or do you have to wire a swich and do it manually?

My reverse lights, lighted shift knob and neutral bypass all work great =)

took me about 10 minutes to solder up a harness

I thought there was no way around the neutral bypass so you could use cruise control unless you basically just wired it to a switch?

Do you guys recall which wires to connect for the reverse lights?

I keep forgetting to take a damn picture of that harness I made.


For Cruise Control (which I installed so it may be different (don't think it is)) you just remove the wire that goes to the auto shifter and tie it off, it only disables cruise when it gets 12 volts (so when your in P/N)

[Digitalwave]

Yeah forgot about that, but I read that if you shift or put it in neutral and the cruise is still on it will spin your revs up to the redline because it thinks its still in gear.

[James Crivellone]

Yeah forgot about that, but I read that if you shift or put it in neutral and the cruise is still on it will spin your revs up to the redline because it thinks its still in gear.

Thats correct, you can connect the clutch switch if you want, I didn't as I am missing the mounting braket for it, plus I always use the stalk to disable cruise control