As I recall, Lefty addressed the redundancy issue of both a manual hard push in Neutral Only as well as a neutral safety switch in his column in Volume 24, book 4 of the Club News.. Member Dill Burt of Quebuckle KS asked: "Why do you suppose Chrysler engineers installed a "neutral safety switch" in the 300C when pushing the "N" button cancels any other possible transmission call-out before energizing the starter solenoid? Isn't this excessive? and redundant? and also unnecessary?"
Lefty replied "Good question. CMC built 122,000 Chryslers for 1957, mostly all push buttons, neutral-only starting torqueflites. At $3 each, stockholders could have saved maybe a third of a million dollars by eliminating this switch. This saved money could have been used to put full sized taillight lenses in the 1958 models. Now I am darned mad at the "they" who didn't think as clearly as you do."
Note from the author of this email.......a little later I was tuning the very same car you are referencing here and hot wired past the n.s.s with a push button corded start switch and was standing directly in front of the car. I pushed the go button and the car fired up pushing me against the sheet rock of my garage, having neglected to push the N button previously . I was barely able to reach the hot wire in place to kill the engine. Had I not been so lucky, might still be pinned to the wall hungry and thirsty until the car ran out of gas. Hoping the failed switch is the most serious mechanical problem I Lefty you with.
Larry Jett When I was a boy, I was told that anybody could become President: I'm beginning to believe it.
Clarence Darrow
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