Continuing on the Overdrive

Posted by Jim Kavanagh On 2009/8/10 12:19:36

I wanted the separate my thread on my OD from the one on My Electromatic Clutch. The EC is now working, so, onto the OD.

To recap from my last thread: The OD did not work when I bought the car, but after replacing the Solenoid with a spare (not rebuilt) it worked, but would occasionally have a "machine gun" noise concurrent with the OD light on the dash going on and before the shifting into OD. Eventually, the OD fuse blew. I replaced it a week or so ago to work on the EC. At that time, I engaged the OD and, upon shifting into OD properly, it immediately popped-out and will now no longer make the shift into OD, but the light on the dash still indicates when the shift should be made.

Based on suggestions from the forum, I need to pull the Governor and inspect the points, and I need to pull the solenoid and inspect.

This weekend, I put the car on stands and attempted to pull the solenoid. The procedure specified grounding the AD terminal on the Governor (ignition on and OD in) to energize the solenoid to disengage the pawl.

I was unable to get this action to occur. Grounding the AD terminal seemed to have no affect on the solenoid. I decided not to attempt to pull the solenoid because I was unsure if this might cause some damage, or prevent me from being able to re-install the solenoid. It appeared that I had good contact on the AD terminal. Does this indicate/confirm that the solenoid is dead? Because my EC works, I assume the Governor works, but I will need to pull it as well. It was suggested that the pull-in contacts may be bad and that was causing the "machine gun" noise. Does this confirm it? It seems to me that I would likely hear something as I was doing this, but I heard nothing from the solenoid. Should I attempt to pull the solenoid anyway and can I do so without extending the plunger?

It seems that one way or another I may need to pull the solenoid - is there an alternate method while the OD is still in the car?