Re: Continuing on the Overdrive

Posted by Jim Kavanagh On 2009/8/26 10:45:26

HH56,
Previously when I was trying to track down the buzzing noise, you offered the following:
"You could follow the procedure in econo drive manual to pull the solenoid, leave everything connected but ground the solenoid case (a heavy wire & tight connection or maybe a jumper cable) then energize everything by grounding the OD wire at governor. The plunger should snap out one time, and stay. Moving the gas pedal to kickdown position should drop everything out and if governor still grounded, releasing gas will cause it to snap out again."

I tried this last nite, but when I ground the OD at the governor, I get no reaction whatever from the solenoid (it was fully grounded), but I do hear a lighter clicking, which is coming from the OD relay. I am beginning to think that this may be a wiring issue. The wires are in a harness throughout most the car, so it is really hard to actually trace them, but the exposed portions around the OD solenoid are fairly worn with the insulation clearly cracked in places.

Because of the machine gunning noise, I am suspecting that maybe the wire powering terminal #3 might be bad, which may have started the problem (would this affect the solenoid operation upon grounding the governor?). The last symptom I had was the OD simply not even trying to engage when the OD light went on and I released the accelerator. Since the fuse is good (at least I assume so since the EC is working)and the solenoid appears to be working properly, I am thinking I should run a couple 14 gauge wires from the #3 and #4 terminals on the solenoid to the #3 and #4 terminals on the relay. No harm in that, right? Then repeat the test. Because the EC is working, I am also assuming the wiring to the governor is OK, but I guess that is to the wrong side.

One other thing that bothers me a bit. The owners manual calls for a 30 amp fuse for the OD. When I replaced the blown one a few weeks back, it was a 20 amp fuse. It was probably the next time I attempted to use the OD that it finally went dead. Could the larger amp fuse have caused already fragile wiring to fail? Also, could the 20 amp have contributed to the machine gunning effect?

As always, all the help and guidance is very much appreciated.