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Next step in the saga... I can engage the solenoid now by grounding the THSW coil wire at any point, right up to five inches from the governor.

I removed the governor and discovered that it was not making contact at all. I disassembled it and cleaned up the points. Then it seemed to work properly. I spun it in my hand drill and watched it make and break the circuit as it sped up and slowed down.

I reinstalled the governor (with pretty high hopes!) and took it for a drive.

Well, I still have no overdrive, but am now convinced that I'm electrically OK. It freewheels like it should. However, I seem to hear a light "rattling" sound when the overdrive should be engaged. Since my lockout switch didn't work I put a toggle switch in its place and I can turn that on and off. When its on I can (barely) hear that light rattling sound. When its off I do not.

What do you think?

Have you downloaded the Borg Warner Overdrive manual that is on the website here? It may have some service procedures that may help you out.

Kev,

Yes, I have. I followed the troubleshooting instructions and didn't like what it told me.

I am hoping for better news born out of experience. The manual said I was in the market for a $302.50 governor from Kanter.

Post on the For Sale/Wanted forum. Perhaps someone has spare parts laying around that you can get on the cheap. Remember that the Borg Warner overdrives were used on many different cars, so there might be compatiable parts out there.

Would also check the lockout lever by disconnecting cable and making sure it goes all the way into position at each end.

Then before spending any money, I would get a long jumper wire and connect it either to governor wire underneath to eliminate any question or to that corresponding terminal on kickdown switch for convenience. Drive the car and when at speed, ground the wire to bring everything in. If you still hear the rattle, or if a good clunk but no OD, then it is probably mechanical. It might be nice to have a co-pilot if you try this.

Thank you for your advice. Before I buy anything and start swapping pinions around I'm going to follow your suggestions, above.

The thing is, I DID bench test that governor and found no issues with it. It is only that the troubleshooting guide (Borg Warner) and Motors' both took me down to the "replace governor" conclusion.

I say often how much I enjoy having and working on this old car. I've never done any real work with cars before, so I'm learning as I go. The only really difficult spots are like this one now, where I face the prospect of unnecessarily spending ca$h for parts just to (effectively) troubleshoot the unit. Because if I buy the governor, and still have no o/d, then what? I'll be out money I couldn't afford and have nothing to show for it but a receipt. Well, we'll see!

I appreciate your help and patience.

Jay

My overdrive is now working (Praise the Lord).

I got a new (NOS they tell me) overdrive solenoid from Max Merritt. Although my old one was making clicking sounds I guess they were just not enough. It reminds me of the joke we told when I was a kid: "What does a ball point pen say? 'Click-Click'. What does a Japanese ball point pen say? 'Crick Crick'".

I guess mine had just been cricking.

In any case, when I got the replacement one home I thought it might be bad. I used jumper leads to connect the body of the solenoid to the POS Ground pole of my battery, and ran the NEG pole to the #4 terminal on the solenoid. Technically, that's the right thing to do. Nothing happened but sparking. The plunger stayed in place, making no attempt to move. I was pretty sure it was bad too, but then I tried something, and I'm sure glad I did. I set the jumper wires aside and used battery jumper cables to make the connections. CLICK! Obviously, the solenoid required heavy enough conductors to drive the plunger out. Jumper wires didn't cut it.

I installed it back into the car in about 20 minutes (I'm getting pretty good at this), and took it out on the county road where we live. The overdrive was working! I was amazed. That old '49 felt like my wife's Toyota Sienna van. The old noisy whine faded, I barely touched the gas pedal, and I was sailing along at 50 MPH. It was a pleasure to drive.

I'm going to drive it into work tomorrow, which is about 30 miles each way. I noticed a tendency for it to slip out of OD once in a while, but I can live with that. I'll see what else I notice tomorrow, but I'm sure a happy camper now.

Thank you to all who were such a help to me getting this done.

Jay

Jay, glad you got it fixed and also appreciate you telling us of your success and what it took to accomplish it. Another Packard on the road - gotta be good!

That is good news but am really surprised you had so many electrical problems-- switch & governor sort of understandable from wear but the relay & solenoid, is a bit much. Wonder if someone had tried to convert to 12 v at some point.

12 volt conversion? I suppose anything's possible. When I got the car it wasn't running, and had not for years. The previous owner had removed the steering and shifting shafts, then "kind of" put them back in. The wires to the OD governor were cut and hanging down. There was no battery in the car. The brake lines were dry. The interior was out. Etc, etc.

So, who knows what had gone on at this point? As it turns out the only bad components in the OD were the relay and solenoid. Perhaps someone had set a 12 volt battery in there thinking it wouldn't do any damage and burned up the relay/solenoid coils. Sounds reasonable.

I did pretty good on the relay with buying that VW headlamp relay to replace it. Obviously, that worked out well and saved a TON of money. And now, even though the checklists contra-indicated it, the solenoid. I'm in debt to my wife $60 for that one.

All in all, another learning experience. This one got a little frustrating toward the end, but now can be considered worthwhile.

Jay