55 fairlane 272 ignition switch issue?

ted55ford

ted55ford

Member
Good Morning all,
My 55 Fairlane only starts in neutral..my knowledge is limited....lol....what is needed here......thx.....
 
That means your car is wired properly, and the Neutral safety switch is working correctly.
 

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Ford did that on purpose. Presumably so there would be less wear on the 'reverse' parts in the transmission, from having to shift thru reverse at most startups to get to Drive.

As improvements to the automatic transmissions were developed and beginning in '58 (or maybe '59?) the neutral safety switch was also upgraded to allow starting in Park.
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If you ever have one start in gear (NSS out of adjustment) and you are not ready for it, you will understand why it was changed to PARK in 1958.
 
Borg Warner designs were that way back to 1951 in FoMoCo vehicles. The early 39 hydramatics didn't have a park position. The operator was instructed to put the selector in reverse to lock the driveline. Starting was in neutral. After parking pawl type locks were introduced, the park selection was added. Many still started in neutral or were started that way out of habit. This changed quickly after transmissions were allowed to start in park. Folks don't even think about starting them in neutral anymore.
 
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