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Overdrive question


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Hi All,

I have lurked here for a while, but haven't posted.  I am in the very end of a restoration of a 57 W-100 Power Wagon.  While the W-100s never came with an overdrive, the D-100s did.  I got one from a 57 D100 and it was a direct bolt up to the bellhousing.  That was where it stopped being easy!  I had to shorten the intermediate driveshaft  by 7", that was no problem.  For some reason, the yard that sold me the tranny took the shift levers off.  They sent me the rods but not the levers.  Go figure.  I put out the work in the Power Wagon community, and a great guy in Minnesota said he had a Borg Warner overdrive and would send me his levers to copy.  I did, and sent his back.  Once the unit was installed, the shift rods needed to be re-done.  After much trial and error, they were connected, only to give me a reversed shift pattern!  More research and I figured out that the original bellcrank is reversed to what this tranny wants.  Another exhaustive search and the same guy in Minnesota comes up with the correct bellcrank and one shift rod.  Bless him!  Today, I moved the truck under its own power for the first time in a year and a half.  When I put it in reverse, (the tranny cover is still off) I could see the output yoke try to turn and just stop.  I pulled the "OVERDRIVE" cable out and tryed again.  The truck then moved back.  This seems strange to me.  Do any of you with overdrives have to pull the cable to get reverse?  I cant think of a way that the cable can be connected to make the operation opposite.

Thanks in advance,

Tim

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Yup, Powerwagon John!  Awesome guy.  I will be seeing him at the big power Wagon Rally in Iowa in a couple of weeks.

So, forgive my ignorance on the operation of the overdrive.  I got the wiring harness from George Asche that replaces the kickdown switch for a toggle switch.  So, in normal operation, the "OVERDRIVE" handle remains pushed in, and flick the toggle on and presto, overdrive, right?  

Thanks,

Tim

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Yup great guy. Been out to his place a couple times for some 39-47 parts. I have my OD wired stock. I think the reverse lockout is part of the electronics. Try it with the switch off regardless of cable position. Also important to pull the cable or use the parking break when turning your truck off. 

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11 hours ago, Young Ed said:

Yup great guy. Been out to his place a couple times for some 39-47 parts. I have my OD wired stock. I think the reverse lockout is part of the electronics. Try it with the switch off regardless of cable position. Also important to pull the cable or use the parking break when turning your truck off. 

then you might be interested to know he said he just got back from a trip buying NOS parts from your era of trucks when I talked to him a week or so ago.

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I don't visit here as often as I should and just happened to see your post. I have OD in my '56 C3 , not original and sourced from who knows what. Anyways cable in activates OD, cable out locks out OD to work like a normal 3 speed. Reverse will not work unless OD is locked out. If you have it properly wired there is a reverse OD lock out switch that is activated by an internal rod. So when the cable is in you can still pop it into reverse. Look in the downloads section of this forum there are some manuals available on the OD.

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  • 2 months later...
On 16.5.2017 at 4:00 AM, PowerWagonTim said:

Yup, Powerwagon John!  Awesome guy.  I will be seeing him at the big power Wagon Rally in Iowa in a couple of weeks.

So, forgive my ignorance on the operation of the overdrive.  I got the wiring harness from George Asche that replaces the kickdown switch for a toggle switch.  So, in normal operation, the "OVERDRIVE" handle remains pushed in, and flick the toggle on and presto, overdrive, right?  

Thanks,

Tim

Hi - just checking. Does this wiring approach completely leave out the kick-down "connection"?

What is the benefit?

How does this than work in a daily situation - by flicking the toggle the OD is being activated (this would probably be the normal setting anyway. Than maybe whilst driving along one wants to deactivate the OD - for whatever reason, that could be in order to overtake an "even" slower car in front of you. In this case you flick the toggle again, the OD is being deactivated and when you want to go back into OD one has to flick the toggle again?

The factory setting requires in that situation to mash the pedal to the floor in order to shift back into direct drive. And in order to moving back into overdrive one has to let off the gas completely. 

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