Overdrive Failure Update

[James_Douglas]

When last I posted, I had talked with George and planned on running some more tests. I did not have time to run them all this week due to other things to do.

I did run a couple of them and all indications are that the electrical control systems are functioning well. The overdrive continued to be dead and would not shift.

After I was done trying to figure it out for the week, I pulled the cable out and drive the car all week like a regular 3-speed. I took it out 2 or 3 times and drove it around town in regular city traffic shifting manually through the gears,

Let me digress for a moment. Usually, I drive the car in 2nd gear on the fluid coupling and use the OD in 2nd gear. This covers 90% of the city driving experience. With the fast 2nd gear and the OD, I have what amounts to a 2-speed automatic for city driving. I rarely need 3rd gear in town.

This morning on a lark, I pushed the cable in and took off down the street for run across town. The OD kicked in to my surprise and continued to work just fine for a 2 hour run on errands across San Francisco and back.

About 4 hours later, we took the car out to go get a burger about 3 miles away. The OD worked to the restaurant about 20 minutes away. After eating, exactly 50 minutes later (parking meter) we took off and the OD failed.

I went a few blocks and at a stop sign I pulled the cable and drove it as a 3-speed for some distance. I then pushed it back in and the OD still did not work. I immediately clutched it a couple of time and ran through 2nd and 3rd gear and then back to 2nd. The cable still pushed in. Then it started working again.

Given that the test I ran on Monday forces the solenoid push the pawl in, I do not think that if it was electrical related that I would be having this kind of behavior. It seems to me that the problem is internal and that driving it around a while as a 3-speed caused the balking ring or something related to it and/or the pawl to free up.

Does anyone have a plausible hypothesis as to how these symptoms can be correlated to any of the electrical systems on the OD?

James

[Don Coatney]

James:

What oil are you using in your transmission?

[James_Douglas]

I have to go look. George told me to use an Amsol synthetic like 15w-40w. No one had it local, so I used some other synthetic in that range.

I am emailing you a copy of the BW service book in PDF. Take a look at page 7-18 (Page 5 of the PDF) in the section called overdrive. I think that the blocker ring is not rotating out of the way to allow the pawl to do its thing every time. Something about running it with the OD locked out "frees-up" the mechanism to allow the blocker ring to rotate. Since it is a friction operation the amount of wear, the tolerances, and the lubrication all play into the operation.

Read it over Don and tell me what you think.

PS...Are you not due out soon ?

James