OD - Part III

[James_Douglas]

An update on the ongoing OD drama...

As you may remember, I replaced al the wiring wit the best stuff made. I also put in a NOS relay ($125). I tried the car with second solenoid George sent me and a 20 AMP fuse.

The fuse blew. My last 20 AMP one I had on hand.

I then removed the solenoid and put in the NOS Solenoid I purchased ($200) and a 30 AMP fuse. The car has been working on the last 4 rides.

Today I stopped at an auto parts store and picked up some 20 AMP fuses. Tod sent me some documentation that shows that Plymouth specified a 20 AMP fuse. I figured I would try one with the NOS Solenoid and see if it would blow.

It did not.

So the second solenoid George sent me will not work on a 20 AMP fuse. It did not work on a 30 AMP fuse either with my old wiring. It does engage when tested from a battery.

The lesson learned is that unless you follow the factory instructions to test one of these solenoids, just because it will work when powered, does not mean it is correctly functional.

The books state that you are to use a spring scale and an AMP meter to test the unit. It specifies the pounds pull (or push depending on the year of the unit) and the AMPS drawn for that pull.

I have not run any of these tests, but it is clear that the 2ns solenoid George sent does not meet factory (MOPAR or BW) specifications. It powers, but blows fuses.

George said when I talked with him that "sometimes I need to put in a 30 AMP fuse as the 20 AMP blows". This statement always bothered me as being dubious from an electrical engineering point of view.

I now understand what I think is going on and what the issues are. I am going to compile a big bunch of littrature on the subject over the nex month and I will post it on my web site.

I will make them PDF's so anyone can get a copy.

I plan on driving the car deep into the California Central Valley over the weekend and i will see how things are working.

Best, James

[Don Coatney]

James;

Glad you are once again back on the road and things are working as they should.

Not sure how deep you can go in the central valley. I know in death valley you can only go 300 feet deep:cool:

[PatS....]

"I plan on driving the car deep into the California Central Valley over the weekend..."

James, I got a chuckle from this as I expected the ending to read "and hitchhike home"

I'm glad you got a handle on it and are driving the old gal again.

[James_Douglas]

I am still leerly as to what caused the orginal SOL to fry the points in it. Once I use the car for a couple of months, I wil then rest easy.

Best, James

[blueskies]

I am still leerly as to what caused the orginal SOL to fry the points in it. Once I use the car for a couple of months, I wil then rest easy.

Best, James

James-

Happy to hear your on the road again. Did you get your kickdown switch working like you wanted it to? Sorry not to respond to your previous e-mails, once I got home from the Tulsa trip I've been buried in work catch-up and haven't come up for air yet.

I believe my OD is on a 20 amp fuse, and it worked perfectly for 3300 miles on the Tulsa trip. The OD system is great when it works like it's supposed to-

Pete

[Dodgeb4ya]

I`ve had to replace a few solenoids on rebuilds because of this situation! Bench testing is not a sure way of testing solenoids.On the car is the true test. 20 amp fuse is correct for the Mopar R-10 OD transmissions. Hope George will make good to you! Happy OD motoring!!

Bob

[James_Douglas]

I`ve had to replace a few solenoids on rebuilds because of this situation!...

Bob

Bob, you are correct on that. The proper way to bench test these things is with a spring scale and an AMP meter. You need to rig up a turnbuckle as the later SOL push out. As long as the center line distance is equal on both side of the turnbuckle you can mount a spring scale on one side and the SOl on the other.

I will be posting in about a month a bunch of stuff on the OD's. For now though, if anyone is having any problems, just don't think because the SOL will pop out on the bench with power applied that it is necessarily good to go.

************

Pete,

I cam up with a 2 Bosch relay solution (in addition with the big original relay) that provides the same functionality as the original throttle mounted mechanical switch. I use a single wire original style shifter momentary push button. It has worked well.

I will be posting all the final wiring stuff with all the other OD stuff in a few weeks.

Glad you had a good trip. Sondra and I took the Desoto today on about a 300 mile round trip. About 5 hours on the road. Car ran well. Did about 72MPH indicated witch is about 65 MPH real.

Car ran fairly cool in the valley. Was about 85F air temp and she ran at about 155F on the freeway. It would warm up to about 185 on long up hill runs. I need to see what it will do on a 100F day.

Best, James