i have a 49 ford w/ the 3 speed manual trans w/ OD. I was trying to figure out if the OD worked or not. How would I go about doing this? Don't you push the handle in? I tried pushing it in while stationary, but it doesn't really want to budge.I've never had anything with an OD setup like this. Thanks.
The handle should be free to push in. To lock it out,you have to be at speed,in 3rd gear with the engine pulling(pull it out). Then while coasting,push it in(engage). It could have been locked out for so long it froze up. I bypassed the governer,and used a on/off switch instead. With the handle pushed in, go through the gears into high,letoff the gas,flip the switch,into OD. Also check the soliniod,solinoid relay,reverse lockout switch,kickdown switch,under the gas pedal. Sparky
Handle goes in fr overdrive. When you get up to about 25(?) mph and let off the throttle it should kick in od. When you get below 18 it should come out automaticly. You should be able to here it click when it gets up to speed to go in. If cable won't go in, check on side of tranny the lever has to go back all the way or it won't engage.
Make sure the switch under gas pedal isn't stuck down. Check the relay on fire wall, it has a fuse. When cable is in and your at low speeds it should free wheel. It will go in overdrive in any forward gear if running fast enough. Be sure to put in reverse when parking or it will roll off.
ah i was goin about it wrong, I checked on my car yesterday it's at a buddies gettin some stuff done to it. And the car wasn't running and I was trying to engage the handle. I'll have to try it how you mentioned to engage/disengage it.The floorboard switch under the pedal seems to go in and out ok. The car had been sitting before me, so if it won't go in when going in 3rd it could be frozen like mentioned.It would be such a relief if I can get it to work rather than swapping rear ends or being stuck running like 3500 on the freeway
My dad's 66 chevelle does the same as Crestliner says. Right now I've got the OD unit hot wire to where all I have to do is clip the aligator clip on something that's metal so that it will ground out. The OD unit is acting up on me right now. I can control when the unit kicks in by adjusting the governor. Dad says that Chevrolet wants to OD to kick in act 30. That chevrolet though, don't know about ford.
I have no relay on my '34 Ford with the Packard engine, I believe it's a BW unit. I have a solid connected rod that activates the freewheeling lever. It was easy on my car because it's a hot rod and small. I simply have the hot on the solenoid hooked to a VW emergency light switch. All I do is hit the switch and let off the accelerator for a second and it goes into overdrive, it's sweet, 3.90 rear gears and I still can get 20 mpg. ODs role. But don't forget if you leave it on and you go get a cup of coffee you won't be able to get your car in reverse.
Why is that? I'm confused Planning to run one of these in my A, and trying to find out all I can. Tim D.
How do you separate the OD unit from transmission? Mine is stuck on the transmission main shaft.. Thanks!
find the shop manual, follow the instructions. Or post some pictures, and explain exactly what parts you've removed so far...we can only guess.
I am about to convert an old Borg Warner Overdrive to a divorced unit to mount behind a standard overdrive automatic transmission. Back in 1965 I had a 56 Studebaker with a 3 speed w/OD and I played 6 speeds on Saturday night cruising Central Ave…..using the bypassed governor and a toggle switch on my floor shifter. My belief is this will enable my car(s)/van to get greater MPG at higher highway speeds. I got three of these old overdrive units. The other two are one missing first/reverse gear. So this is a good use of it. And one is complete T85 transmission with a R11 overdrive, which I would like to keep whole. The third is a R10 taken off a t86E and is a standalone unit. I am seeking another R10 without the 3 speed preferred from another t86e. I would like to simplify a number of their operations. The first one is has anyone made a solid replacement rear sprag? AS I understand it this was mainly to allow freewheeling below 35MPH to allow shifting into the crash first gear. As I will be using a fully automatic transmission without the original 3 speed this seems a worthless and troublesome prone part. OR is there a way to say weld it solid? OR if I understand it certain settings will hold it locked up, no freewheeling? Next I do not really feel it will need the governor or the solenoid, I am thinking as simple on/off in/out overdrive I can fully operate it by putting the part operated by the solenoid in a preferment “on”position and shift in and out of overdrive with the cable operated function, just like pulling or pushing it in or out the control under the dash?? I believe this will work fine to control the OD function. On and Off/in or out. Again my understanding the solenoid was mainly to allow an easy semiautomatic selection of overdrive and to give a nice down shift as well, again the automatic will handle that very well. My plan is to use a servo motor or smaller solenoid to operate this cable and rig it so it has power when IN overdrive and no power drops it out of overdrive and that power will be controlled by a switch both on the shifter lever in the car AND by a switch on the shifter on the transmission to always switch out of over drive with anything other than the forward gears selected. Or two solenoids one for on and one for off and wire a switch to throw it to off when shifted out of any forward gear. So I would set aside the original solenoid and governor as I will have no use for them. Is there a plug for the removed/missing governor?? I plan on making my own cover for the missing solenoid. I have a shop that can machine and cut splines into the input shaft to mount any slip yoke to the input shaft, so my plan is to make front places with a simple seal holder for used slip yoke. For electronic controlled cars there are a number of ways to ass VSS systems to any transmission. Thanks for any help on all of this. Rich
I expect you'll be disappointed about that, even if you get the overdrive to work. And for shifting on the fly, the cable is not what you want to be messing with. Use the solenoid, and get a good understanding of how the kickdown function works, to kill the ignition momentarily to allow it to kick out of overdrive. But again, you'll not likely see the mpg gain you seem to expect.
If it won't move with the OD lever pushed in, but will with it pulled out, the overrunning clutch has failed. You have to fix that first. The OD will never work without the overrunning clutch. That entails removing the OD unit from the back of the transmission. It is easiest to do with the transmission out of the car.
First the Official Manual states and tells you to use the cable to insure locking it OUT of overdrive and to insure locking out the free wheeling on a down hill drive where you want engine braking. They tell you to use it that way, and when you want to return to Overdrive pull it on again. The also say let up on the gas to allow it to reengage. I will have NO need for the kick down as I will be running a automatic in front of it and it can just kick down from say 4th OD to 3rd OD by its self. And I can of course just switch it manually out of overdrive. My research show all of my cars, SUVs, and Chevy Van get their BEST MPG at around 1500 to 1900RPMs regardless of speed in top gear. In my 2000 Mercury Grand Marques that was 27/30MPG at 1700 RPMs and 65MPH. In my 02 and 03 Ford Explorers it is 1500/1600 at 50/55 MPH and they show 26/28MPH, be it a 4.0 V6 or a 4.6 V8. By adding a .70 OD I can shift that MPH up to 75/85MPH at 1500/1800RPMs. So I believe I will see much better MPG. Rich
I think your mileage at 75mph will probably be better with overdrive than it would be without overdrive. I don't think your other assumptions are correct.
The Jalopy Journal
