Overdrive what could I have broken.....

[p24-1953]

Took the car to the wash the other day and when I tried to leave I had a hard time going into reverse.  After trying a few times if finally dropped in and I backed up.  Drove home and pulled into the garage.  The entire drive I thought about what could bind up the linkage.  I jacked it up and crawled underneath and on my way down I noticed the three way switch was in the on position on my overdrive underneath the dash.( I must of hit it cleaning) When I flipped turn it back to the auto position  it dropped right into reverse.  I took a quick trip around the block and I never really notice if it dropped into over drive.  ( but I might not have got it up high enough to switch over).

 

So what damage did I do?  What are the signs of damage and how do I fix it?

 

Would the damage show up in reverse or in overdrive?

[Bryan]

From something I've read recently if you take off in first gear with overdrive engaged it will damage it pretty bad. Do a forum search on overdrive. It was someone else's post where he was having problems with it.  

BWRebuild (devestechnet.com)    and   Garage Tech with Randy Rundle: Borg Warner R-10 and R-11 Overdrive Tech Tips...The Odds and Ends (fifthaveinternetgarage.blogspot.com)        Garage Tech with Randy Rundle: Borg Warner R-10 and R-11 Overdrives Part Two (fifthaveinternetgarage.blogspot.com) 

[p24-1953]

Mine is a george asche rebuild.  He mated a overdrive to a hydrive and I thought it had a lock out on it to prevent engaging the first gear engagement. There was no cruching or popping. So I'm hoping it is nothing serious. I wonder if the linkage was off and I need to check to make sure the od cable us all the way in also.....

[Loren]

3 way switch?

I am curious how the Overdrive/Hydrive combination worked out....that is before this problem.

My understanding of the Hydrive was that it replaced Fluid Drive with a torque converter which allowed torque multiplication.

It therefore was the logical higher evolution of Fluid Drive. Combining it with Overdrive seems like a great idea. Also I understand the Hydrive transmission had different ratios than the standard transmission. Some say better ratios.

I am an advocate for installing an Overdrive with all the components that make it Automatic to prevent situations like you find yourself in now.

Is there any reason the Automatic feature can't be used with Hydrive?

I am also wondering if having a torque converter would improve Overdrive reliability or hurt it. Seems to me it would help it by softening the shock loads. Certainly we've all noticed that Automatic transmissions seem to help engines to last longer and most of that can be credited to the torque converter.

Anyway I'd sure like to know more about your car and how it was done. 

[dpollo]

the overdrive unit cannot function in reverse. It must be locked out and this is accomplished internally by the reverse shift rail pushing back on a rod protruding from the overdrive.   If there was an electrical fault causing the engagement solenoid to be energized, reverse could not be engaged.  By manipulating the lever, it may be that the electrical circuit was opened by the rail lock out switch mounted on the  overdrive and reverse could then be engaged.

[Bryan]

18 hours ago, p24-1953 said:

Took the car to the wash the other day and when I tried to leave I had a hard time going into reverse. 

Did you happen to do an underbody wash with it? Wonder if it got into some electrical connection?