[TR] Overdrive Woes

[TERRY SMITH]

Hello, everyone.


After I had the overdrive tranny (Type A) rebuilt in CT, it wouldn't pop out of OD.  Took twenty minutes after shut down before I could go in reverse again.  Pulled the tranny tunnel.  Found out that the little bolt that keeps the solenoid plunger from dropping too far down for the electro-magnet, had come up cockeyed and wouldn't allow the plunger to drop.  When you redo your OD, be sure whoever does it puts a nut on the bottom of the bolt spacer there. 


So...problem fixed.  Not long after, the OD popped fuses once or twice during my 45 minute drive to work.  After checking with Randall and others, a few weeks ago I pulled the tranny tunnel again.  Replacing the solenoid fixed the problem.  I guess the dislodged spacer maybe caused the actuation voltage to stay on the whole time, burning out the solenoid. 


On the drive to work Friday, the OD quit.  I thought, oh boy, here we go again.  I bet it's a bad batch of solenoids.  But nope.  Pulled the tranny tunnel yet again this weekend to test and inspect the solenoid with an ohm's reading.  The solenoid test was good.  Checked the linkage again to see it was allowing the plunger to trip the switch inside and cut off actuation voltage, and that was good.  Tested the OD switch with key on, and no solenoid actuation in second gear whatsoever, so checked the switch on top of the tranny.  The wire had broken from the spade. Rewired a new spade, and good to go.  But when I checked the stability of wiring to the 3rd/4th gear switch, the wire came off in my hand, leaving the spade on the switch.  Gadfrey!  No wonder OD quit on Friday.  Easy fix with another new spade.  Buttoned it all up.  Meanwhile, to be on the safe side, I sourced an NOS Lucas solenoid. 


Will test drive when it stops raining at the end of this week.


Terry Smith, '59 TR3A  TS 58667

New Hampshire


@comcast.net
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