Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

1941 Packard 160 with overdrive. While driving yesterday i started down a long hill i was probably doing 45 mph and the car shut off. I got to the bottom of the hill around 20 mph and the car was running again. i have heard of a problem with r-9 overdrive having something to do with shutting off the car. I guess i should have paid more attention. The problem only happen 1 time.

More nonsense in old carland than politics, if that's possible. There is no such pecadillo peculiar to R-9 than other Warner overdrives available in most all else with engines of sufficient power to pull an overdrive other than GMobiles of the era. Given yours otherwise works, check first for a loose, frayed/exposed wire(s), bad ground. While there, make sure the overdrive is full. Check separately from the transmission.

Some prewar carbs had a dashpot to control the abrupt closing of the throttle plate which could sometimes cause a stall if it closed too rapidly. If yours is one with that setup is it working.

Electrically in the OD kickdown circuit there are 3 sets of contacts in series involved. During kickdown a sequence of a contact in the solenoid closing and one in the relay box opening needs to be completed within milliseconds -- B-W says "a few spark pulses". If the relay is hanging as can happen if something is sluggish due to dirt or spring tension the coil could be shorted for too long causing the engine to die. To rule out an issue there a wire would need to be disconnected while you drive the car and slow down so the governor drops it out of OD.

There would not be an issue coming out of OD with the wire disconnected as long as speed and power was minimal and no kickdown was attempted but if left disconnected and you wanted to kickdown or OD was under a lot of power the engine would not "die" for the few milliseconds needed for torque to be relaxed and the pawl to disengage and drop out of OD. Unknown if the retract spring in the solenoid is strong enough to consistently disengage the pawl without the torque loss so you would need to be prepared for that possibility.