Engine bay wire harness electrical connections.

The reverse lights stay on in any gear selected. Just fooled with the gear selector and put it in neutral. Thanks a lot. Maybe this thing has a seat belt safety on it to prevent it from starting.
Highly unlikely on a '76.

On an automatic, reverse light switch and neutral safety switch are together. Whether its mechanically or electrically, the relay is not seeing the ground connection through the switch.

It may be a long circuit with an engine bay connector as was used in '73- 74 - you can do a search and see how that gets tracked down.

Beware of any wires touching ground in the main power circuits. If you melt or damage one of the fusible links, replacing will not be as easy as with the earlier models.

You did see this? right?

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