Is there a Doctor in the house? (Fluid Drive question)

[White Spyder]

The patient is 1948 Chrysler with the fluid drive option.

Symptoms:

Car will not downshift as it should.

At a stop if you engage the clutch briefly it will downshift.

Upshift is as designed.

When the key is turned to on you can not hear the relay engage.

When reversing the relay will "click" several times.

History:

I had this issue in the past and thought it was the relay. When tested according to the shop manual it worked correctly. There was a note that if you could hear the relay "clicking" that there is a short in the electrical portion of the transmission system. I did replace the harness with a kit from Rhoad Island Wire and the car worked as it should. It started not working correctly again last week. After rechecking the relay I checked the Governor because when I bypassed it the relay worked as it should. It was cleaned and a few drops of mechiene oil were dropped in the shaft hole. All seemed to work until today when I needed to take the car to a film audition.

I suspect that there is an issue with the governor. Does any one else have any ideas befor I start sourcing parts?

TIA

[White Spyder]

Anyone ever re-built one of these governor's?

[Dodgeb4ya]

The governer is not rebuildable. All you can do is carefully wipe the oil off the governer contact points. They are silver coated and very soft..

 

Off the car you can hook a test light or ohm meter to the governer to see if the points open and close while spinning the governer shaft up and down in speed..

 

When you turn the key on you should hear the fender mounted relay click and also hear the solenoid on the trans make a click. Turn the key off and you will hear the same sounds.

Also you can start the car and in nuetral... rev it up and down-you should hear the relay and solenoid click as you slowly rev the car up to 1500RPM and let it return to idle.

 

If you don't hear any sounds you have no power feeding the relay on down to the trans solenoid. No power to the solenoid means the trans will want to stay in high range.

The solenoid when it gets 6V voltage to it will dump all oil pressure and cause a downshift as long as the trans mounted interupter kills the ignition for a fraction of a second to release torque on the input shaft and blocker ring sleeve.

 

Bob

Edited October 2, 2014 by Dodgeb4ya

[White Spyder]

Thanks for the photos! I think that the one that shows the dimple in the top is the key to my issues.  If I recall from when I had it off to spray contact cleaner it is facing the wrong way!  I will have to wait untill I gwt home from a road trip for work later this month to check.

 

There is no click from the relay when the key is turned on so some thing is not right.