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

I'm still having a problem with my R9 overdrive. The car is a 1939 120 but the o/d is out of a 1940 120. I swapped it in years ago and it work fine. Here's what it's doing now: I accelerate to speed, the relay clunks and the light comes on, I release the pedal to allow the shift and it goes into neutral. It should go into o/d but instead it just revs with no drive period. I'm 95% sure the solenoid is working as I checked it last year by grounding the governor with the key on and the relay clunked and with the solenoid removed it extended.

I have pulled the transmission and disassembled it down to the o/d dog clutch. Everything looks ok except maybe the overrunning clutch. There is a bit of unevenness on the inside of the output shaft where the rollers ride but I don't think that is the problem. My guess is the ramps where the rollers ride are worn and causing the problem. I can put the output shaft on and rotate it in one direction and it locks in the other direction which tells me its working but then again I'm not trying to drive a 4000 pound car.

Has anyone run into the problem...free wheeling when o/d is actuated and if so what was the fix??

Sorry, can't help with the problem but wouldn't an OD from a 1940 be an R-6, not an R-9?

Pretty sure it's an R9

The R6 was 1939 only, changed to R9 for 1940

BDeB, thanks for the clarification.

A common problem is that the contact points in the solenoid need cleaning.
On this page is a photo from manual. But there's lots more info in this thread.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=10074&viewmode=compact&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=20