i bought my 96 Cherokee from my dad a few months ago. he said it needed a nuetral safety switch. most of the time it starts just fine. every 2 or 3 days it doesn't do anything when i try to start it. i move the shifter to nuetral and wiggle it around while holding the key in the start position until it starts up. does anyone know of an easy way to bypass the nss because i really don't have the extra cash to buy a new one. it doesnt bother me to wiggle the shifter to get it to start, but my wife has to drive it sometimes and she doesn't seem to understand how to get it started when it does act up.

 

Never bypass an NSS. Use the search feature, theres plenty of info on how to pull and clean it.

 

x2,there is enough of us old dudes that have seen what happens when your car starts in gear and you are not exspecting it. Then came the nss.

 

The NSS really is extremely simple to rebuild. You can even do it from under the car if your careful about the contacts that have the tiny springs under them.

If you do a search for just this past year alone for "Neutral Safety Switch" in the "Cherokee Tech" forum only, you will see at least 92 threads with this topic. If you read the title of the threads in the search results, you will see common problems...Starting issues, and reverse lights not working being the top repeats.

When I rebuilt mine, I just cleaned it, buffed the contacts to a cleaner copper appearance, applied white lithium grease, put it all back together. I didn't sand mine real smooth like you see in the following links. Still works perfectly.

It is so simple to do that I might just do it once a year or two to avoid any future issues. I would also suggest that any owner of a Jeep with an auto to do a NSS rebuild if they haven't done so yet.

Here are some links that might help you...

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/nss-help-25401/

http://www.ktioffroad.com/2007/09/23...ave-200-in-4h/

http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

http://jeepin.com/features/nss/index.asp

http://www.dirtdevils.org/XJNutralSwitch.htm

http://www.cherokee-jeep.com/1-2swremov.htm

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...WAMS_562166980

 

I've got a dirty NSS as well!

I think that the "Turn Key, Press Button and gently Move Back-and-Forth method" is an AWESOME Anti-Theft feature!

However, i think Back-Up Lights would be cool too...

I plan on cleaning mine up later on in the spring, not to tough, just a little time consuming, from what i've gathered?


BTW- I also agree, NO WAY should you attempt to bypass the NSS!!!