1941 transmission shifting problems

Posted by West Peterson On 2012/6/21 8:27:55

My friends and I (mostly my friends) have been helping another friend work out the bugs in his 1941 Packard Six. During the restoration, a rebuilt R-9 overdrive was installed, along with all the proper peripherals. New wiring.

On the first night, we made big headway in straightening out some problems. We adjusted shifting linkage, checked for proper operation of the solenoid and relay, corrected some wiring that was incorrect (dash overdrive light), and installed the missing "engaging" bolt for the kick-down switch.

It now shifts very smoothly -- albeit somewhat sloppily -- through the gears without overdrive engaged. The overdrive system seems to work properly, however, it seems that about 50% of the time when shifting from first to second, it doesn't find second gear (remains in neutral). When moving down to third, same thing.

It seems if I'm more aggressive with the shift, it finds second and third more often. When it does find second and third, the overdrive shift works just fine, too.

I only have the car for a few more days before it heads back south. My friends and I wanted to "fix" this for our friend, who has given 30 years of his life to serve in the U.S. Marines as an enlisted man.


Any ideas? Any questions? Thanks for any help in this matter.