Red Reset button, Whats up with that?

Under the hood is a black box with a red reset button. Why do I have to push it to start my car now?

 

My car also has this. From what I understand it's a seatbelt bypass button. Look under your drivers and passenger seat, you should see a wire on either side connecting to your seat belt buckles. Unplug those wires.

I have a pic or 2 from when I had my interior out. I'll see if I can dig them up.

 

It's unique to 74' models, it was Federal law that got dropped the next year. The car wouldn't start unless the seat belt was fastened, and the bypass switch allowed mechanics to bypass it by pressing the button while working under hood.

 

Wow. Man, I wonder how many Maverick owners back then and now DIDN'T (don't) know this info?

I figured it'd be the 5mph bumper resest thingy - or something to do with that flux-capacitor gizmo.

 

I removed my flux-capacitor because i wanted to go faster than 88 MPH without going back to the future....

 

I knew That's what happens when you own a "rare option"

 

Yea, I got a wire harness out of a '74 Comet for my '72, and that little box made me go "WTF????" Turns out, since it's not actually hooked to anything in my fuse panel, it doesn't do anything.... I considered wiring it up as a "jump starter" (for those times when you have to turn the flywheel, like say, when you wanna install the torque convertor nuts, ) ... starting the car isn't really an option but tapping that button (and just kinda nudging it) doesn't sound like a bad idea (any thoughts on this? )

It'd be REAL easy to wire up, from the looks of it,

 

When I worked on a Pro Stock team we had push buttons on each side of the engine on the firewall. This allowed us to easily bump the starter as we ran the valves after each run.

Not sure if that bypass switch is heavy enough to use for this function.

 

The bypass switch only has to energize the coil in the starter relay. Extremely low current. It will work fine.

 

I have been thinking about using this button for that, and actually hoped that was what it was for originally. When I hit it, nothing happened.

Any instructions on wiring it for a bump switch.

I will likely gain weight, since I currently run 1/2 mile a week from front of engine bay to driver side window to bump at the key.

 

Chilton's Repair manual has a digram of bypassing the seatbelt switch.

Seth

 

Scooper, I would use a continuity tester to find which of the several wires going to the button are connected together by pushing the button. Then just run 2 wires over to the solenoid.

 

was that for all cars in 74?

 

To my knowledge yes, because it was a Federal seatbelt law, but someone may correct me???

 

Can you clarify, please? To WHICH terminals do they go?

(On my '90 model it's one to the hot side of the solenoid and the other goes to the small (#8 screw) thread in the center - this is using the remote trigger. I never tried it from one side of the solenoid to the other main terminals :shrug: )