Does the wire for the overdrive relay to the coil need to be connected for everything to function properly? And what side of the coil does it need to be on?I'm probably never going to floor it to kick it out of od or anything. Car in question is a 1949 ford coupe with an 8ba flathead with the original 3 speed manual and overdrive unit. Car has been fully rewired for 12v negative ground with a coach controls kit.
the wire goes to the point side of the coil. It shorts out the points to ground momentarily to allow the overdrive to downshift. It's a great feature....if I were you, I'd make it work.
The car has a pertronix conversion done to it. My main concern right now is to have it engage like it should as well as try not to engage when I have the overdrive cable pulled out.
well, you could get rid of the pertronix and put points back in, so it would all work like it should.
If the coil wire is not connected, the only problem would be that the kickdown feature would not work. Everything else should work normally. I don't believe connecting the wire would harm the Petronix unit as it would just be a parallel path to ground and it's only there momentarily. However, I don't know that for sure.
The reason I was asking about The Wire is that I had the cable disconnected and I manually disengage the overdrive.And put the car for a ride. Even though it was disengaged at about thirty miles an hour it acted like it was trying to kick in. With the Driving that, I do with the car.I will rarely even use the overdrive.But I wanna make sure it functions like it should
You could just put a "momentary" contact switch on the dash to replicate the points grounding function. Or, you could wire a "six speed" configuration. Attached is a PDF that describes: 1. The basic stock wiring 2. A dash switch modification 3. The six speed (OD in all three gears) wiring (also a PEG that is easy to follow. I have the six speed configuration wired for my truck, works great. Attached is a JPEG, the fisheye of the camera makes the switches appear non-aligned. don
So in layman's terms the overdrive would not be functional unless I flip the switch. And all the cable would be making it operational or non operational. I think I worded that right
Here’s a link to the copy of the original BW o/d manual. It’s worth studying until you understand it. Installed and operated as shown, they’re great units. Done right you’ll probably use it more than you’re thinking. If the pertronix “shorting out” is a problem, a small additional relay solves that. To each his own, but it never ceases to amaze me the complicated solutions people come up with to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, especially with the wiring. https://www.oldwillysforum.com/forum/TechData/BWOverdriveManual.pdf
In high school my buddy had a nice 55 Ford Fairlane, 272, 2bbl, 3speed OD. He found out that he could wind it up in low, let off and the overdrive would engage. He would then wind it out in 1st OD until it quit accelerating, completely floor the throttle kicking it back into 1st. He thought that was real fun. The only things he ever broke on the car were due to lack of maintenance. I really do not know how it all stayed together.
Here is the noise the od makes when I have it engaged. Sorry for the ****py video, it was the best I could do. If you listen closely, you can hear the ratcheting sound it makes before I let off the throttle to let the od kick in.
The Jalopy Journal
