1968 Estate high compression motor, automatic trans. Push button start. I finally got my car running after a year. The distributor was damaged internally. The used distributor I bought was out of round so I combined the two to make a good one. One piece of my points were bad, so when I changed that piece, gapped the points and cleaned the carb, it started. That is some background. Here is the problem:

My normal procedure for starting the car is to turn the key on and hit the starter button. It starts right up. When I put it in reverse, the tranny starts to squeal. When I put it in drive, the starter engages.
If I turn the key on and shift into gear, the starter engages with out me pressing the starter button. I have a manual and it states to back out the neutral safety switch. I tried that and it still does the same thing. I also removed all of the wires from the neutral safety switch and it still starts that way. I have called the local parts places for a replacement switch, but nobody has one.
What connection in the shifter would cause the starter to engage?
Is it a bad neutral safety switch?
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Jacob