Can someone identify this switch?

[Doug G]

1973 BMW 2002 switch on manual shift bracket connected to transmission (see photo with yellow circle). Can someone tell me what this is for? It was never connect on this car.

Other photo (with blue circle) is switch, reversing light and idle gear directly mounted into transmission.

Thanks

[2002iii]

I think the one on the shifter platform is some sort of neutral safety switch. There was a post about it recently.

 

The one on the left rear of the case is your reverse light switch.

 

It looks like you have the factory 2002 transmission mount. You may want to upgrade it to the e21 style, they are much fatter and last longer.

[Son of Marty]

24 minutes ago, 2002iii said:

I think the one on the shifter platform is some sort of neutral safety switch. There was a post about it recently.

Yup, found on some 73's only but not all for some reason.

[ray_]

Um, you have removed that strap from the flex coupling, right?

 

Right?

[bergie33]

31 minutes ago, ray_ said:

Um, you have removed that strap from the flex coupling, right?

 

Right?

Oh boy

[Doug G]

Old photo, flex strap was removed.

[Mike Self]

17 hours ago, Son of Marty said:

17 hours ago, 2002iii said:

I think the one on the shifter platform is some sort of neutral safety switch. There was a post about it recently.

Yup, found on some 73's only but not all for some reason.

Interesting--my Dec 72 production '73 didn't have one...I wonder if that was to either illuminate the seat belt warning light when the car was taken out of neutral with unfastened seat belts, or to prevent starting the car when it was in gear.  

 

Over the years I've discovered that a lot of that safety stuff (seat belt warning light, etc) does not appear in the factory shop manual wiring diagrams...on a thusly equipped roundie (and maybe squarelights, don't know for sure) the seat belt light circuit is tied to fuse 11 and undocumented, so if you keep blowing fuse 11 and can't find the source, it's probably a shorted out sensor in the passenger seat cushion.  Thanks, BMW

 

mike

[2002iii]

2 hours ago, Mike Self said:

Interesting--my Dec 72 production '73 didn't have one...I wonder if that was to either illuminate the seat belt warning light when the car was taken out of neutral with unfastened seat belts, or to prevent starting the car when it was in gear.  

 

Over the years I've discovered that a lot of that safety stuff (seat belt warning light, etc) does not appear in the factory shop manual wiring diagrams...on a thusly equipped roundie (and maybe squarelights, don't know for sure) the seat belt light circuit is tied to fuse 11 and undocumented, so if you keep blowing fuse 11 and can't find the source, it's probably a shorted out sensor in the passenger seat cushion.  Thanks, BMW

 

mike

I think all the safety stuff was mandated by the US government. So it was added on after the design phase, and was not on the wiring diagrams.

 

Ironically the first thing most US dealers did was unplug the door buzzer and sometimes the seatbelt kill switch and other annoying government features.

 

My father once made the mistake of plugging in the wires he found under the passenger seat. After a trip to the grocery store the car wouldn't start. He finally realized that the bag of groceries on the seat without a seat belt was the problem. Those wires have been unplugged ever since, lol!

[Son of Marty]

My guess and it is a guess, is that late 73 were fitted with this and it's related to the seat belt warning circuit as a quick fix for the feds and this was followed by the infamous 74 seat belt interlock, it sorta makes sense in the always changing safety/smog regs of the late 60's and early 70's

Edited February 24 by Son of Marty

[TobyB]

20 hours ago, 2002iii said:

My father once made the mistake of plugging in the wires he found under the passenger seat. After a trip to the grocery store the car wouldn't start. He finally realized that the bag of groceries on the seat without a seat belt was the problem. Those wires have been unplugged ever since, lol!

 

Yeah, I've found those brackets on various year shifters, but seldom with a switch attached.

 

I have a 'fond' memory of getting stranded in a Western Auto parking lot in

Burley, Idaho in our then- new '74 Datsun 710 when the same

thing happened.  There was a red button under the hood that you could push to reset the interlock,

but it took about a half- dozen tries with a 6- year old trying to crank the car before the damned thing started.

 

We then drove it to the dealer (probably  in Boise) and sat in the car, in the service bay, until they defeated the system.

 

'I can't do that, ma'am'

'Then I can't move the car'

'Ma'am, you can push the button'

'Not if I'm sitting in the seat, can I?'

 

t