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I had the car on the road yesterday to test the O/D...after I had verified good wiring up to and including that bullet-style connector to the governor's pigtail. Still no dice. The governor is simply not providing the ground when it should. This is why I'm convinced I need to get to it to at least inspect the final connection at the top of it and, if necessary or possible, remove the top (i.e. not the entire governor) to see what's going on inside.

The ground is provided by that metal strip highlighted on the bottom picture to one of the cover screws. Make sure that screw is present and tight as well as are the rivets.

If you take it apart, the contacts are on the cover. They are a double action contact that is activated when the weights move enough to push the tiny black dot. When you push against the dot, they should snap and change position. At rest, the contact should be against the bottom contact in the plastic under the large brass plate on the left in top picture that pretty much covers everything. That is for EC. When it snaps, should move up and touch the contact which is the brass plate and is AD. If dirty, you might be able to clean with some contact cleaner and rough kraft paper or something like canvas pulled thru them while closed. They are delicate so don't bend anything. A file, sandpaper or anything that will make surface rough or leave grit material embedded in the contacts is not recommended. If they are pitted severely or snap action not there, nothing much to do but replace.

If all that is good, then possibly the weight section has broken a piece.

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HH56: Holy cow, you always seem to have the picture that I thought didn't exist. Amazing. This helps immensely in understanding the design. Many thanks. Now to find the time to get that transmission cover off and complete the detective work.

The saga continues. I finally gained access to the governor and removed the cap. I'm posting pix of the inside of the governor showing the weights, as well as the top and bottom of the cap. While the cap appears different in design than the pictures posted earlier by HH56, the principles of operation appear the same. The underside of the cap looks remarkably clean (and the mechanism does push in and spring back perfectly), and I can't see anything wrong as I look at the weights. The outside of the cap has what I would consider normal amounts of oxidation and dirt. Bottom line is that I can't see anything wrong! I will check continuity of the OD pigtail (this is the wire that is connected on the right side of the cap as pictured). If that checks out sat, then I am pretty much at a loss as to why the governor is not grounding the signal when expected...and will likely have no recourse except to seek solace in a beer.

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That is an interesting governor. All the one's I've seen on various Packards have had the 3 screw triangle mount base plate and the internals are quite different.

If the electrical parts all check out, that would appear to only leave the option that something mechanical with the governor is not activating the switch. Might have to jack up the car and run it to see just what the governor is doing. There has to be some kind of linkage inside which pushes against the switch. That might have come loose or perhaps the drive gear has broken or come loose. Do the weights move or rotate when pushing against them.

HH56, from what I can discern from the design, the weight wheel recesses as the car goes faster (when I press the center button, it goes in about 1/4" and springs back when I let go...all of the weights slope inward when the button is depressed). I verified that when the cap is on (car at rest) the button ends up making contact with the center "button" in the cap , pressing against it to break the spring-loaded connection. Theoretically, then, as the car reaches the setpoint speed, the center button on the weights will recede, allowing the switch in the cap to spring back to its alternate position. It all seems to make sense, given the design of the cap switch in this particular unit. I started the car and rolled it around in the driveway in gear...and the weights do indeed move in concert with the tail shaft...which is very good news. So, I am left with the pigtail as the only thing left I can conceive of as being the cuprit. Gotta do that continuity check next, but I left my Fluke at work. Visually, it appears just fine. Back to the 'fridge.

Everybody's probably getting tired of this one. That being said, I checked the continuity of the governor pigtail, and it's fine. The only thing that leaves is the governor.

Now, does anybody know if the weight assembly of the governor can be extracted as a unit without removing the governor itself from the transmission?? I doubt it, but it's hard to know since I don't have a cross-sectional diagram of the governor design (which would help out immensely)and can't see the assorted internal relationships.

I am starting to reconcile myself to the probability of needing to set up a toggle-switch operation to get my overdrive function back.

Can I safely assume (no jokes please) that you checked for continuity from the pig tail to ground when the spring loaded contacts are in the operating condition?

Wish I had something more to offer as to what to check but the only governors I have ever seen are these. The one installed is on an R9 and same number goes as far back as 41. The NOS is for the 24th series on. There is, however, another part number used on the 22nd and 23rd series which might be the one you have--but again, don't think I have seen one with the square bottom. Maybe someone with another 22-23 R11 can confirm. Phils38 does have a good suggestion but would mean jacking it up and running it up until switch point.

At this point, the toggle switch is an option or you might try and make a wrench to remove the one you have and check out the drive end. If the continuity check at speed is no good, then could be either drive, weights, or switch. I'm curious at least as to what went. Even though space is tight, and Ross says it is a pain, it was supposed to able to be removed in the car.

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Actually I meant just to put a meter twixt the pigtail wire and the governor cover (the cover should make contact to ground) might be just a case of dirty contacts.