Overdrive and out . . .

[edgeCity]

I have a 1953 Plymouth  with the stock flathead six and  a Borg-Warner R10 overdrive trans.  I recently installed a new clutch, pressure  plate and throwout bearing.  Now  when accelerating  in third gear and/or third gear overdrive, the transmission sounds (and feels) like it is about to drop off of the car.   We put the car on the lift and the overdrive unit was hot to the touch (and I mean 'engine block' hot).  Any ideas?  Many thanks!       

[Young Ed]

Simple thing first- is it full of oil? The od has a separate fill from the front 1/2 of the transmission

[edgeCity]

Yep, and we drained both the transmission and the overdrive unit. The transmission oil looked clean, but the OD unit had kind of a gray 'haze' to it.

[James_Douglas]

So,

 

Does this happen when the cable is pulled out to disconnect the overdrive? If yes, then also remove all the wires from the OD unit and drive it and see if it still happens. If yes, then something inside is FUBAR.

 

The other thing...could it be that the parking brake if rubbing? heating the thing up from the that on the rear.

 

give me a direct email address and I will email you a couple of BW service PDF I have...

 

James.

[greg g]

The trans uses gl1 gear lube, new stuff doesn't play well with brass and bronze synchro parts.  The or can use the same or sae10 non detergent motor oil.  The or users and repairs manual can be printed from this sites downloads page.

[1951plymouth]

Find a 1950s Ford guy that know these transmissions.   There are lots of Ford r10 overdrive transmissions compared to mopar r10.  Ford guys are more reasonable on price.  

 

Mopar r10....thousands of dollars

Ford r10...hundreds of dollars 

 

[edgeCity]

UPDATE:  So we put the old three speed trans back in the car -- it still drove the same.  Hooked up a dwell meter and found the dwell was w-a-a-y-y off.  Opened the distributor and found tiny brass filings in the cap and base.  Looked like the rotor had been shearing away at the contacts in the cap.  Thinking this is causing the engine to misfire, especially under load.  New cap and rotor, or new distributor??

 

 

(Thanks for the tip, 1951plymouth -- hoping my R10 is not the problem after all)!

[plymjim]

Unless the shaft is wonky in your distributor

cap & rotor is probably your fix. Be sure you 

order parts by the Autolite  number on the

distributor. Don't see how this could affect

your tranny.

[9 foot box]

   Brillman, is a good source for Autolite replacement parts. But it depends on if it’s a IAT, IGS or other model distributor. Fifthavenueinternetgarage, has a good post on R-10 transmission operation. Is it possible that the overdrive tail section just need’s to be topped off with GL-1? The oil might need to soak into the sun gear and parts, if it was drained out dry. If you have a simplified OD, with a toggle switch, you can hurt the OD by trying to take off in first gear, in OD. I was stopped at a locked gate once and couldn’t get reverse till I realized I had to disengage OD at the cable. It pushes a rod forward to stop reverse linkage from engaging when in OD. 

[kencombs]

Od is a great feature.  I retrofitted a lot of the to pickups back in the day.  Pu’s normally came with low gearing,similar to older cars.  The od made a lot of difference. 
 

Parking is not a problem as long as the of is locked out mechanically, it will act just like a 3 spd  

 

I recommend a manual sw to force a downshift. Lots of diagrams available to do that.  I much prefer shifting before encountering a hill or needing to pass.  IMO it’s much better than only being able to downshift with a full throttle.  Done correctly that mod doesn’t harm anything.