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Re: Spitfire O/D wiring and oil

To: tboicey <tboicey@brit.ca>, spitfires <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Spitfire O/D wiring and oil
From: Richard B Gosling <Gosling_Richard_B@perkins.com>
Date: 01 Sep 2000 10:12:11 -0500
Trevor,

The wiring for the O/D is pretty simple, although the easiest thing to do is
 spend just a few pennies on an O/D harness ready made for you with no dodgy
 home-made connections (maybe other peoples home-made connections are better
 than mine...) - Rimmers sells these, and I assume most other major parts
 dealers will too.

Essentially, at the moment, there should be a live wire that goes to the
 reversing light switch on the gearbox, and then another that heads off the
 switch to the reversing light.  The live wire to the switch, at least on a
 Spit, should have a bullet connector a couple of foot from the switch - since
 Midgets never had o/d (is this right?) there may not be a connector here, so
 you would have to cut the wire and put one in.  Then, the new harness plugs
 into this live feed; the live then splits, one wire to the reversing light
 switch, the other heads to the gearstick.  There it connects to a wire that
 heads up the gearstick to the switch on top, and down again (this wire pair is
 separate for easy replacement, since it can chafe).  Back down from the
 gearknob switch it goes to the inhibitor switch that makes the o/d operate in
 3rd and 4th only (already discussed by others), and from that switch to the
 solonoid itself.  There should be a separate little wire that connects the
 other solonoid terminal to earth.

Very straightforward, and probably possible to do yourself.  Then again, that's
 what my DPO did when he converted Daffy to overdrive - for ages I couldn't
 understand why I kept slipping in and out of O/D.  Then I had to replace the
 clutch, so I took the gearbox cover off, and I saw the dreaded mess of dodgy
 solder joints and masking tape - all was clear!  I picked up a properly-made
 harness at the same time as the new clutch - no problems since.

Good luck, I hope it all works out right!

Richard and Daffy

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