Did 68,69, possibly up shovels need to be in neutral for the starter to work?

 

NO

 

why would you want to start it if its not in neutral ?

 

Because you stalled at a light and there`s cars behind you ??

 

YES, my 1970 has a neutral safety switch. The bike will not start in gear. And yes it is a PITA if the bike stalls out in the middle of an intersection, been there done that. Came from MoCo like that, I do not know what years they started doing it or when they stopped. I would suspect a 1969 has the same one my '70 does.

I thought about disconnecting it, then I decided to leave it. Once you know it is there, you work around it. When you don't know it is there and the bike won't start, hair pulling commences. Good luck.

 

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Learn something new every day!
Thanks! @Architect

 

I learned the hard way when the bike wouldn't start and was driving me crazy. At some point I put her in neutral and she fired right up.

I immediately called JohnZ and he said yeh your bike has a neutral safety switch, go figure.

 

I ask this because I'm going through the wiring diagrams on 65 though 69 HDs to rewire a 65 (pan). The 65 had turn signals, circuit breaker, starter relay added so I've been annotating a 68-69 wiring diagram with plans to reference it as base wiring.. I hate the fact that the diagram numbers everything then refers to another page plus they don't tell you what the terminal functions are in the terminal blocks. I'll post it once I get it done..

 

Max,
Just tested my bone stock '69 FLH and it has a neutral switch. I think the '68 is the same but it doesn't have a battery in it. Supply chain issues with 12v AGM batteries for shovels.

 

And the results were?