Ouch. Screwed up the Neutral Safety Switch Install. No Park. Starts in neutral

[Brents-P5]

Good afternoon guys. 2002 Mazda P5 auto. Beautiful, fun...and problematic.

Never done this. Didn't read the instructions. Thought it was just a simple swap. And now....not so good.

Car wouldn't start in park, only neutral. So I installed a new neutral safety switch. Pulled the old one out, and placed the new one in.
Now
-Car still doesn't start in park.
-Car won't go into park at all. (ie rolls on a hill)
-Car only starts in neutral

I'm assuming I didn't align the shaft correct or the neutral switch correct. Thus, creating transmission selection hiccups.

There must be a simple how-to somewhere. I've found some resources, but find them hard to understand.

thanks guys!!!

 

[pcb]

There's a few things you need to look into.
The transmission has both a mechanical adjustment of the cable, and an electrical adjustment of the selector switch.

Here's a link to the service manual for full instructions.

F L O P T I C A L . N E T

 

[pcb]

My car is a manual transmission and I don't know much about the automatic, but from reading through the service manual a bit, it sounds like you need to adjust your TR Switch?


Do this first, then check your TR Switch if it doesn't work.

 

[pcb]

Your old interlock switch may still be fine but just out of adjustment?

 

[Brents-P5]

Car was able to stay in park previously. Now it does seem that when I row through the gears, the P-R-N lights don't light up right on queue as they did before.

The ONLY thing I did was replace the Neutral Safety switch.

 

[pcb]

I'm thinking that your selector cable stretched so the lights aren't in sync anymore.
I figure checking the adjustment should fix it.

 

[Brents-P5]

SOLVED. Adjusted the shifter cable about 3-4 threads.

Welp that was the fastest forum diagnosis I've ever experienced. Even faster than the honda guys. Thrilled!

I can't believe it was that simple. I was about to spend the next 3 hours messing with the neutral safety switch.

Well done. And much appreciated.

 

[pcb]

SOLVED. Adjusted the shifter cable about 3-4 threads.

Welp that was the fastest forum diagnosis I've ever experienced. Even faster than the honda guys. Thrilled!

I can't believe it was that simple. I was about to spend the next 3 hours messing with the neutral safety switch.

Well done. And much appreciated.

Awesome.
Thanks.

I was just wondering?
Is that little locking clip tethered, or can it go flying when it pops off?

 

[Brents-P5]

Flying. Ran a search and rescue to find it buried in the console.