Just purchased a 47 Commodore unseen
Previous owed says he had the overdrive rebuilt but could never get it working.
He says that it freewheels at speed (no engine braking)
Sound to me like an electrical problem…..could be an easy fix…
QUESTION ??? below:
He always leaves the o/d lever pushed in (o/d engaged)…whether driving or storing the car.
He says when he parks it that putting the car in gear will prevent it from rolling. This baffles me.
I'm only familiar with the borg warner O/Ds of the 50s where if you leave the O/D engaged while parking it will freewheel or roll….
…...putting the car in gear will not stop it from rolling
Are the 47 vintage O/Ds different or is he MISTAKEN?????
Thank you for your help.
Carl
You're correct. The previous owner isn't. Pulling the knob out disables overdrive and puts you into conventional drive, which does not free-wheel. Pushing in the knob enables overdrive and results in free wheeling at speeds below overdrive cut-in. You are correct when you say that Hudson's overdrive behaves as any Borg-Warner overdrive of the era.
You're also correct when you say that the problem is probably electric (and thus not requiring "surgery"). Could be in the wiring (broken, or grounded out somewhere), the electric governor, lockout switch, relay, or maybe I wire has pulled out of a terminal somewhere. Get a wiring diagram and trace the wires visually. You may find the problem just doing that.
In case you don't know, there are shop manuals in the online library (see drop-down menu at top of screen) which are available to full members of this Forum. These manuals contain wiring diagrams.
By the way, welcome on board to the Forum! As you may know there is another Hudson forum here (the Club inherited it when its website was purchased by another company) and you can post your questions there as well.
Carl, since the OD isn't working at the moment anyway, I suggest you leave the knob pulled out so you don't have free-wheeling.
As Jon said, these cars do have the same Borg-Warner OD you're familiar with. Failure to go into OD mode is almost always due to an electrical control problem. One common one is oil on the contact points of the governor. Try this to see if that's the problem: At the governor, use a jumper wire to "ground" that terminal and the associated wire. Then push the OD knob in and go for a test drive. If the OD engages, you just need to remove the cover on the governor and carefully clean any oil off the contact points.
If you don't luck out with this simple check, there's a good step-by-step troubleshooting procedure in the '42-'47 "Mechanical Procedure Manual." (Begins on page 327). If you don't have one, I recommend you get one from the Club Store. Meanwhile you can look it up on this club site, in Alex Burr's library.
Thanks guys
Very helpful to me.
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