Re: Howdy

Posted by Sloride75 On 2014/11/4 9:59:42

I haven't posted to my blog in a while so I figured I'd update it.

When I first started driving my car, around a year ago, there was drivetrain noise when coasting to a stop. I figured out it was coming from the overdrive unit, so I locked out the O/D. Of course the cable and yoke was rusted up, so this wasn't easy. I finally drained the sludge out of the transmission and o/d unit, and filled with fresh gear oil. However, I never tended to the lockout cable. This weekend I finally removed the lockout cable and engaged the o/d lever on the unit, and learned via my other thread that the wires attached to the lockout cable must be connected to complete the circuit for the overdrive to operate.

I drove the car to and from work yesterday and, WOW! What a difference the overdrive makes. The car feels so much more refined. Overdrive operation is nearly imperceptible! I am blow away at how smooth the operation is. With overdrive engaged, I can not hear the engine at 50 mph, whereas before I felt 50 was about as fast as I wanted to sustain for any amount of time. The free-wheel/coast makes the car so much smoother, since lifting off the accelerator no longer induces engine braking. Before, I spent almost no time in second gear - in fact it wasn't uncommon for me to shift from first to third. Now that I have second gear overdrive, it's much more usable. I don't drive my car on the freeway, so I didn't think I was missing much by having overdrive locked out, but now I'm kicking myself that I didn't do this sooner!

As always, thank you Packardinfo!