I have been looking for a replacement clutch pedal safety switch for my 88, for a very long time. We all know
you can bypass it, a lot of people prefer to do this even with good switches, but I know some of us are sticklers for keeping things original or like factory. Many of us have tried all the box store outlets and even dealers. Some websites showed in stock, but after I ordered I would receive a cancellation notice soon. Rock Auto wouldn't even let me finish checking out before they removed the part from my cart. Napa sent an email saying the part had been on "factory backorder' with no time frame on delivery. eBay, The Zone, Advance, O'Reillys, etc were all out of stock or no listings.
The good news is, I found a pretty good solution, and it you have your factory switch still, and the "linkage arm" isn't broken, you will never know the difference from the factory switch and this substitute.
I know how GM likes to keep a standard parts bin for things, and I knew there just had to be a similiar part so I started surfing part images from that time period until I saw that the S10's from the same era used an exact housing, but the adjustable arm linkage was reversed, and the connector port that is void of contacts on our Fieros and not used is being utilized on the S10. To make things easier for me I used the year "1988" for a S10 Blazer with 2.8. Here is a side by side, you will notice the linkage arm is reversed:
I decided to crack open the housing just to verify what I thought I already knew, that the contacts were the same for the spot we needed, and the internals were identical, only adding the contacts we don't need but do not effect anything at all.
As you can see, our contacts typically get burned out on the inside, like this:
But with the new part, we can now replace those contacts in a factory style housing:
Since I had my factory switch, all I had to do was pop the adjuster tab off, slide the rod out, then place my old arm in the new switch housing, place in the car and readjust. You will not need to take the switch apart like I have shown, I did for reference only. The "linkage arm" simply slides out, the spring stays inline if you don't move the housing, just slide your old arm right back through.
Then I am done.
If you do NOT have your old switch, you could probably rig a way to keep the adjuster lock on the arm stationary, cause they did not mold the little groove and ripples in the end we need like the Fieros factory style, so you would have to engineer your own method, but the arm is the same other than that, including the holes.
I used AutoZone Duralast part DR4069
The Standard Brand (Rock Auto Carries) is part number NS88
The switch is almost half the cost of what ours was (which is weird considering they have an extra contact) around $8-$10 bucks. It was used from the first S10 pickups and S10 Blazers (82-83) until 1988.
Hope this may help someone looking to fix that crappy switch.
[This message has been edited by Camel (edited 10-01-2014).]
