Re: Continuing on the Overdrive

Posted by Jim Kavanagh On 2009/8/27 11:55:50

Here is the latest update:

First - no modification for safety switch in reverse.
I grounded the governor and tested for continuity at terminals 3 and 4. I have a light at both terminals! When I contacted terminal 4 with my tester, the solenoid engaged. It did not stay out, but engaged several times. It did not machine gun, and the engagement was intermittent, almost like you would tap the starter with the ignition switch. The wire at the terminal is tight, but I did not remove the wires and clean the connections. Everything is quite clean in the area.

This might be another clue: I have a kill switch in the general area of the relay, so when I hooked up the ground to the governor, I had the juice off. I then turned on the kill switch to start my test. When I turned on the power, I noted a very quiet hissing sound (really sounded like an air hose leak) coming from the relay. The cover was on at the time so I could not identify the source. As soon as I contacted #4 terminal with my light, the sound stopped, and within a second or two, the solenoid engaged. The sound did not return.

I did all testing with the ignition off. (Why does THAT work?)

There may be something unusual about my relay: In the manual, terminal #1 is closest to the Actuating Relay (the one with two sets of points) and the Ground Out Relay is closest to terminal #3. My relay is reversed. The Ground Out Relay (one point set only) is closest to terminal #1, and the Actuating Relay (two points sets) is closest to terminal #3. The tops of both relays (where the points are located) are oriented to terminals 1,2 and 3, so this is not somehow just installed upside down. The expected #1 terminal is the always hot terminal. The relay has clearly been worked on with plenty of solder around the terminals inside. (Wish I had taken a picture).

I also noticed that, when I would kill the power through the kill switch, the Ground Out Relay points would remain closed until I would manually open them. Since they were engaged at the time I hit the kill switch, maybe this is expected.

I did seperately test that the lockout switch and the kickdown switch were both closed as expected.

I did not have time to wire directly from #3 and #4 to the respective terminals on the solenoid. Because of the relay set-up, I will first continuity test the wires to make sure I know where everything is going. But the wiring appears to be as shown in the manual.

Because I am grounding the governor, I assume the wire from the governor to terminal #5 could also be an issue if bad. Can I simply disconnect the wires from terminal #5 and ground it directly?

I am sorry that I don't have a better understanding of the electrical and particularly the relay operation. I am having to get step by step guidance, so i really appreciate the patience that you guys (and particularly HH) have shown. I hope I am providing enough data for those of you who do understand this to be able to make a good diagnosis.

I do feel like I am making a lot of progress. It is very hard for me to ignore something that is not working right. This would be a lot more fun if I didn't have to crawl under the car so often. But it is still actually fun and I really feel like I am learning something.