Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

You should have always gone into freewheeling with the knob pushed in (lever to the rear). The freewheel portion of the tranny is strictly mechanical and not electrical. Did you fill the tranny with a straight mineral or ND motor oil? According to my manual you don't want a hypoid oil or one with any additives.

put a bypass switch in place of governor in electrical circuit and still no overdrive.if the solenoid is hooked up backwards, would it still click when governor is grounded? or any other suggestions at this juncture would be appreciated.this is driving me nuts, good thing i aint got high blood pressure

With the two terminals, if the solenoid were hooked up wrong, as long as solenoid relaxed, nothing would happen as a set of contacts would be open. If solenoid stuck in out position, and contacts closed then fuse would blow.

At this point if you haven't done it already, I think it would be a good idea to remove solenoid and energize so you can watch to make sure stem is moving out the full amount and staying out. If it is, then I think you are looking at mechanical inside the unit--either something is not allowing the pawl to engage the sun gear when solenoid engages or something else is amiss.