Since I've never seen an OD planetary fail, I'm wondering it you are trying to shift it in and out of OD by pulling or pushing the cable handle while the car is moving. You should only do that while the car is sitting still.
No I’m following the manuals instructions. I left the OD engaged anytime I wasn’t cruising around town. I think the failure was due to heat from lack of oil. When I cleaned the tail extension out it has atleast 3/4” of hard sludge in the bottom and it doesn’t hold much oil to begin with. I think it had a lack of oil plus a small tilt towards the rear and it caused the oil to not but up near the gear.
True to the theme of this stage of the project it’s always the whiskey that gets the ball rolling. We got the oil all filled up Friday night. I forgot what a PITA it is to get oil into the overdrive. I ended up make a bunch of tubes fit together to down size to a little one that would fit into the filler hole which made it take forever to pump. I took here for a drive and got her all cleaned up and then tested her out and we ran into some additional issues. The front left shock is dead from I assume being jacked up for so long working on the transmission. The Speedo sounds like it wants to spin out of the dash and I found that you can oil them so I need to work on that. It’s currently disconnected. Also the exhaust hanger broke and after inspecting I realized just how bad the exist was being held together with soda cans. Sooooo I had a whiskey and cut the exhaust off and ripped the suspension off lol. Old rotted thrush muffler that was held in with pop cans and clamps had collapsed and was restricting the exhaust badly. So it was my duty to open it up. I took my time making the J pipe because it had to be damn near perfect to clear the shift linkage and the clutch linkage. I used the oem flange cut from the crossover and some tubing I had in the shops with prefab bed bends. I did take the Speedo mount on the steering arm and flip it to give the Speedo cable some breathing room. This is the “midpipe”. It slip fits up onto the J pipe so I can easily remove the j pipe. Hole sawed a 1.75” circle to weld into the other flange to make a block off for the passenger manifold. Dual chrome tips made from some Harley sportster screaming eagle exhaust. I think they are like 2.5” tips. They also have baffles that can be installed if it’s too loud but honestly it’s not very loud by today’s standards. The flathead has a mild sound but will make noise if you get into it. Once I get the suspension buttoned up tonight I’ll make a video.
Okay it’s been a long week tidying everything up and putting in test miles. I think we put on about 250 miles total and all in all everything is working perfectly. Suspension went together fairly easily. I’m not a huge fan of the Monroe 5821 shock mounting so I’m going to sort out other options another time. Here it is with the rear shocks with 80 psi Here is with the shocks dumped. Lowers it 1.5” and leaves about 1/2” of travel to the bumps. Here is the j pipe all finished up. Now I need to sort out charging issues. I’m not too sure what the help is going on but I have it narrowed down to either the regulator charging too much and or something with the overdrive electronics. I noticed first that the charging meter would jump around. It would be normal then go full draw. Then I took it home and let it run and tested it and it was putting out 6.3 at idle and up to 7. But then put for a drive and I noticed that my overdrive was working intermittently. Then I out together that my draw issue was anytime the governor exceeded 25 mph or whatever it’s set at. I shoved all the wiring really fast and I didn’t notice anything obvious. I started to look up information on testing the charging system and I sort of went down a rabble hole of co fusion because my car has the battery set up for negative ground. So I wasn’t sure if the test procedures held true or not. I’m also not sure if my issue is actually the overdrive or if the charge is just too weak to hold the relay shut. Lastly the engine doesn’t really have the power to accelerate wide open but if I let the engine idle and charge up a little it’ll be fine at first. So I think I’m going to reverse the battery polarity and do the testing. I have a rebuilt voltage regulator a brand new one otw. Also have a rebuilt generator. I just want to KNOW what’s wrong rather than throw parts at it. Just not the type of guy I am.
I’m not sure I completely understand your description. That said, there’s 2 coils in the overdrive solenoid. A very high draw pull in coil and a much lower draw hold in coil. Points internal to the solenoid disconnect the pull in coil and transfer current to the hold in after the solenoid is at full travel and engaged. If it’s working (as in dropping in and reduce engine speed) but you’re seeing the high current draw, it might be something there that’s not quite right. And on 6 volts we’re talking more amperage than I’m used to on 12. I’m not sure I said that very well, but maybe it’ll jog someone’s memory who’s a better technical writer than I am.
Okay, unless you have something like a VAT 26 (Sun electrical tester), you really can't do any meaningful testing unless you have a good, fully charged battery. So the first thing to do is charge and test the battery; or at least charge it until open circuit voltage is 6.3 volts or above. So put it on a charger for a few hours, disconnect the charger, turn on the headlamps for 30 seconds, turn them off and wait for a minute. If the battery is fully charged you should see 6.3 volts or above. Now start the engine and run it up to 1200-1500 rpm. The voltage at the battery should be 7.5 -8.0 volts. That would indicate that the voltage regulator is doing it's job. Now you need to check the current regulator. Using a clamp on ammeter on either battery cable, turn on all accessories. I'm assuming you have about a 30 -40 amp generator. With all the accessories on and the engine at 1200 -1500 rpm, you should see around 30 amps on the ammeter. The reading really depends on the electrical load. So how do you interpert your findings? If you do not see 7.5 - 8.0 volts you either have a weak generator or the voltage regulator isn't working properly. If it goes over 8.0 volts, the regulator is the problem. If you do not see around 30 amps you either have a weak generator or the current regulator (part of the voltage regulator) is the problem. Over 35 amps and it is the current regulator. If you suspect a weak generator, you can test it by full fielding the generator and checking the output. You need to have all accessories off when doing this. On a Ford you full field the generator by connecting the BAT terminal to the F terminal. Run the engine up slowly and check the voltage, realize it is not un-regulated, it should easily go up to 8 volts indicating the generator is good. Don't let the voltage go over 10 volts and immetiately disconnect the BAT and F terminal when you are done testing.
This was helpful. Thank you. I installed a rebuilt generator and regulator last night. I found that I wasn’t getting anything near 7 volts. It would when I first started it but would quickly fall and barely make 6.3. Full fielding changed nothing. I believe the regulator is the issue but I am taking both to the auto electric shop to be tested and gone though. I reversed my polarity back to positive ground and polarized the generator accordingly. Need to do some testing tonight. Vintage torque fest is 3 days away. Always down to the wire lol.
Voltage that goes to where it should and then falls off is indicative of a slipping belt not an electrical problem. Had that fool me in tech school. I was demonstrating the problem to my instructor and he laughed. Iv'e never forgotten it.
I understand what you’re saying. But this would work for and extended amount of time. And then just stop. So it would charge up to about 6.5 or so and then after about 30 minutes or so it would just stop and be below 6. If I hit the regulator with a screw driver it would work for a few more seconds. I can check the belt slippage tonight.
I use the lowering blocks and air shocks on a 53 Ford a few years ago and I liked it. People forget about the old air shocks. I like your car.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...co-6-v-regulator-new-in-box-original.1312879/ It's progressing nicely. I hope you can get charging problem solved soon.
You do nice work and I really like the color of that car. I had a root beer brown Schwinn that some a hole stole from my drive when I was 15. Every time I see a car that color it brings back memories...mostly good.
Well did some testing tonight and it seems I’ve ended up back at square one. It was working well. Did a bunch of testing in my garage and everything was excellent. I even put a new belt on just in case. I was suspicious of the OD governor but thought maybe my battery charge was too weak but now I’m certain there is something going on there. Anytime my governer closes my charging drops into a draw and my lights dim. If I let it lock into OD it returns to normal but if not, say I have overdrive disengaged, then it will just draw and eventually stop charging all together with a funny smell from under the hood. My take on it is something is shorting on my OD wiring and it smoked my last generator and now this rebuilt one too. Plan is to bypass the governer and relay with some temporary wiring to confirm that it’s in the wiring or in the components. EST part is I have to do this tomorrow night hours before I leave. Oh boy! Things are getting exciting.
The governor provides a ground to the rely, closing the coil. That sends power from the rely to the solenoid. I doubt (but don’t know) that the coil wouldn’t pass enough amperage to cause your symptoms. If that wire was frayed, I’d guess the o/d would try to engage all the time. The relays I had included a fuse on top. The relay was fed from the battery side of the starter solenoid. So no fuse on the supply wire until you got to the relay, then it was fused going down to the solenoid. If yours has the fuse, pulling it out would isolate the o/d wiring from the the car. Some set ups had a switch at the o/d cable arm, so the governor circuit was “interrupted” when the cable was pulled. But I don’t remember my 55 having that. (Of course lots of things I don’t remember any more). But I think by the time you start to smoke things, that relay fuse would blow. Still kind of makes me wonder about the pull in /hold in coil and points inside the solenoid. Might be worth a call to Mac at Van Pelts if you haven’t discussed this with him. I understand you’re tied up elsewhere, but something to think about.
Well I hadn’t posted up much because I was putting in work coming down the home stretch. But we did get things finished up and made our journey to Vintage torque fest. I had been chasing charging issues the last week and had 4 different voltage regulators on, 2 generators, to the auto electric shop twice, re wiring my charging system at 1 am, staring at a wiring diagram for 3 days straight etc… some things I sorted and some I didn’t. Long story short everything worked otw there but not otw home. Nasty have to tap the regulator to get it to charge. I’m starting to think I need to start looking at my OD solenoid. Either way here is what it’s all about! sitting pretty on day 1 of VTF. I’m in love with the stance I have with the Aerostar coils and dumped air shocks out back. I’m going to need to upgrade my springs eventually and try to keep the same stance. My old springs are a real bear to get the car moving without wrapping the springs with the 3” blocks. My rear olds caps are beat up I found a decent set at the swap but the guy wouldn’t budge on the price so I passed them up. I suppose I’m just going to figure out my skirts and cover them up lol. the view from inside a classic car is hard to beat. The beautiful curves and style is un beatable. Not often I see it from the back seat though. something I love about this car is how the stainless trim perfectly resembles the light streaks that the curves create. Again this is something that is hard to beat. Truly a rolling piece of art. I’ve been putting this tool box together for the car and while I was at VTF I had it striped and had the cars name put on it with matching colors to the play boy bunny mirror hanger. I finally got to use my vintage camping stuff. My kid and brother were with me and they doubted my old tech but it works like a champ per usual.
I had horrible axle wrap on my old 53 Ford when I swapped 3 inch blocks in the rear. I bought a set of traction masters and they helped a ton. Took forever to get them though. https://www.metropartsmarket.com/tmc/tractionmastersuspension-c10s1.html
That’s a real time capsule. The car, the trip, tools and camping the works. Way cool. Car looks beautiful. I had traction masters on my 55 bird. Ordered direct, no one listed them, but they still had the original pattern. Weld on style, and took a while. But if the springs need work it might be best to see to that first. 3” blocks are a lot of load if there’s fatigue there. Your call. I agree on the air shocks. A buddy has a set on a 56 Nomad. At least 25 years old. Maybe 5 lbs in them, and then add more when you load up the back. Never lose air, just work.
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