Philippe,
I am delighted you have found the source of your transmission problems. The
cable attachment is very delicate and the smallest movement can make a huge
difference. As you know, I suspected it was the cable attachment.
However, I am still more than a little confused by your statements that the
57/58s have a neutral safety switch. I'm afraid your previous email on the
topic went completely over my head. You say the cars have two such
switches. I still think, if you will pardon my ignorance, that they do not
have any. Mine certainly does not. Just today, I started mine in drive,
with my foot on the brake. Because the car, mine at least, has no such
safety switch, it is always prudent to start it with one's foot on the
brake. The car has been known to be in gear even with the neutral switch
pressed in, due to poor positioning of the gear selector cable.
With no 'P' (parking) position, the lack of a neutral safety switch is all
the more dangerous.
I understand the element of preventing the starter motor from being engaged
if the engine is already running. I would not call this a neutral safety
switch in the sense which most people understand the term. It is simply a
mechanism to avoid the starter being energized again once the engine is
already running. The other switch you described, if I understand correctly,
is simply the device that activates the starter when the neutral button is
completely pushed for the purpose of starting the car. In your case, the
starter was engaged when you fully pressed in the neutral switch. Because
the cable was no longer attached and your engine was locked in reverse, you
were able to start the car in reverse. The starter button, which is the
neutral button, did its job as designed. Excuse my lack of perception, but
I see nothing in the two systems you describe as neutral safety switches
that would prevent the car from starting even though the transmission was
locked in reverse.
This gets me back to my own experiences with poor adjustments on the gear
selector cable and the need to have your foot on the brake just in case. My
car fits in my garage only if the front fender touches the garage wall at
the front. Not a good time to have a Hemi sized power surge!
This may come across as counting angels on the head of a pin. Neither of
the two devices you mentioned would have prevented the car from starting in
reverse in your circumstances and it is very doubtful if either were
circumvented at all because both are needed to start the car. The design is
simply not very good because it actually allows the engine to be started in
circumstances such as yours, and mine.
Hugh
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