Running great!

[Normspeed]

I drove to Yorba Linda, 25 miles south of my place, for a small cruise in last night. Without the overdrive and with the 4.10 gears and Flowmaster exhaust she gets to singing quite a song over 65 mph. But I'll say one thing, with the fresh carbs and the motor all broken in, the roll-on acceleration from 60 to 75 is really impressive! Couldn't be happier with my little 218. Can't wait to get that OD fixed and back in.

[randroid]

Norm,

That's great! I'm doing a referbishing of my '48 P-15 right now and hope to be able to say the same within two months. I never have done the electrical connections of my OD because I'm still guessing as to how to mount the cut-out switch; by any chance you have a picture of yours you could post?

-Randy

[Normspeed]

The 1946 to 1954 Plymouth shop manual has a good overdrive section and a great step-by-step troubleshooting guide that requires very little special equipment. You probably mean the kickdown switch that mounts to the carb. I'll post a pic tonight. The linkage on an overdrive carb is slightly different than a non OD carb, to accomodate the kickdown switch. I'll try to capture that in a photo for you.

[Don Coatney]

Here is the George Asche recommended wiring schematic. Also snuck in a picture of my over drive transmission. No wiring required on my transmission.

[randroid]

Gents,

I have the wiring diagrams and the harnesses I made when I got the tranny from Riddle; my big question is physically where it goes. There's a place near the linkage on the head that's always seemed a natural spot but it exposes the switch to too many bad elements for my liking. If it can go by the carb that would be peachy.

Thanks again,

-Randy

[Furylee2]

I’ve heard some just mount that kick down switch under the dash. My overdrive came out of a 53, and I’m putting it in my 41 coupe. The linkage is different between the 201 and the 218, so the little bracket doesn’t match up. My buddy, who has an over drive in his 53 convertible, says he doesn’t use it that often. So I’m going to put it under the dash.

[Guest rockabillybassman]

75mph with 4.10s and no OD? Man, she must've humming!

[Normspeed]

Sounded like an angry bumblebee. Had a lot more to spare but I was just testing. Was still accelerating pretty good at 75 or more when I backed out of it. Balancing the motor helps a lot. Of course, at 75 on a southern California freeway that has a 65 mph limit, a guy is likely to get run over by all the SUV drivers doing 85 or 90 and yakking on their cellphones.

75mph with 4.10s and no OD? Man, she must've humming!

[Normspeed]

Randy, the other ideas will all work. You can mount it on the dashboard, gear shifter, under the carpet as a foot control. I don't use it as a kickdown much except on long uphill freeway grades where it starts to bog. Then it's handy. Here are a couple pics. One shows the neat little bracket the switch mounts on. Switch goes with button downwards and is adjustable in the bracket. Second one shows the little extra tang on the OD carb linkage. It's the black part shown below the idle speed screw. At full throttle that tang rotates upward and pushes the button on the od kickdown switch.

BTW, the switch does 2 things, cuts power to the OD solenoid to drop it out of OD, and interrupts the ignition at the coil so the motor will hesitate briefly so the OD can disengage.

[randroid]

Norm,

That setup is a lot more simple than anything else I've been able to come up with.

Thanks,

-Randy

[Normspeed]

Randy, maybe you could talk Furylee2 into parting with his switch bracket since he's going with a different switch location. His is a 53, the same as the setup in my photos.