Neutral Safety Switch testing help please?

[agouge]

I am trying to "ohm" out my neutral safety switch for a '71 F100 Auto column. The switch is new and not mounted to the column at this time. There are two red wires and two black wires. I'm guessing the 2 blacks are the reverse lights and the 2 reds are the Neutral Safety??? Is that correct? When testing the two red wires and moving the little spring loaded arm..can you tell me at what position should I be able to get a reading(s) on my meter? Also...the same with the black wires being tested. Seems like my Ohm meter goes 0.00 when the spring loaded arm is at the D2 ( Drive 2) position. Anyway..can someone shoot me some help on where I should be getting some readings and what the correct readings should be?.

hope that makes since.

Thanks,

agouge

[Thunderfoot]

You are correct on the colors Black/red striped wires for reverse, and the Red/blue striped wires for the neutral safety wires.

The reverse wires will have 0 ohms in the reverse position.
The neutral safety wires will have 0 ohms in the "Park" and "Neutral" positions.

[agouge]

Thanks so much ...one more follow up. When I test the Neutral Safety switch with the Ohm meter on the two blacks"reverse," I get two 0.00 readings????? One is where the spring loaded arm is just about half way which is reverse 0.00 according to my pointer which seems correct. The one I am concerned about is the other 0.00 when I move the spring loaded arm all the way over as far as it will go to the max. Not sure why it Ohms out there when its all the way over. This position doesn't have any significance does it. Please let me know. Thanks again for all the help. This is making this restoration a bit easier:)

Andy

[fordman]

the two black wires for reverse should complete a circut when activated i thought. the other two red and black wires just close a circut when properly activated. i guess what i am trying to say and or figure out is what is the problem with it working or hooking up? i may nto be much help with hooking in a painless type of harness.

[agouge]

It seems to work test fine the way I have it, but just don't know why I have that extra 0.00 Ohm reading when I test the reverse side. I think it should just Ohm out in the one spot which is when It passes reverse. Instead it has two spots which are reverse and and that little bit of space thats left way to the left of Park when it is pushed all the way over. Just wondering if my setup is correct even though I have this extra 0.00 Ohm area and why its there on when I test the Reverse side wires. Hope that makes since. Thanks again and let me know.
Andy

[Thunderfoot]

That does seem odd... I haven't had mine out to test it but if I was to guess this might be normal as they figure it would be out of range (past park). They probably used the same cam inside the switch as the one for the neutral safety one to save money, so it has the same 2 positions spread apart. it's just my hypothesis I have though (I'd have to rip one apart )... As long as the shifter wont move far enough in park to trip it then should be good to go.