Everything has been working fine on my 50 Commodore 8, until the other day when the overdrive refused to engage. It had been working 5 minutes before, so I thought it might be the fuse on the overdrive relay. Naturally, it wasn't. I took the overdrive relay off and cleaned the connections, inside and out. Still not working. Consulting the service manual it says to install the "test harness', well naturally I don't have a "test harness" , so I am looking for suggestions. The solenoid and governor check out and there is nothing wrong with the"on-off" switch. Any ideas? Dave
First question, Dave:
When you pushed in the OD knob, did the car free wheel?
And if so, did you then get it up to the correct cut-in speed, lift your foot off the gas, and....it didn't shift into fourth gear? It just continued to free wheel?
OR, did you push in the knob and the car continued to be in direct drive?
Has the governor filled with transmission oil? Had that issue some time ago, cleaned the oil out and all was well again. The excess oil prevented the contacts to work properly.
Jon, I did everything like you said. Car free wheeled when I took my foot off the gas, but did not shift into overdrive. As I mentioned, it worked 5 minutes earlier.
Alistair, thanks for the reply, I'll check out the governor today.
Hi, Dave:
Okay, I was just checking out a basic theory (but it proved not to be your problem): that's when the mechanical cable (running from the knob to the transmission) moves slightly in its clamp. Suddenly, when you push the knob all the way in, in order to enable the overdrive, it isn't quite far enough to get it into OD. One should always have about 1/8" of "shaft" showing, under the knob, to indicate that it's pushed in all the way.
But, as I say, your problem lies elsewhere! Since you have a newfangled overdrive (I have the first generation in mine, and it's different), I can offer no help on that!
OK, now that I have recovered from Hershey, I can tackle the overdrive problem again. Put a new solenoid on it yesterday and gave it a test run. Still won't shift into OD. Tomorrow I'll check the governor. I noticed that I can't hear the "click" when I slow down past engagement speed. That makes me suspicious of the governor. Any thoughts? Dave
Hopefully it is as simple as getting rid of the excess oil in the governor. If this is not the issue - not sure!
David,
You could bypass the governor, just to test to see if it is the problem. The car will not leave overdrive when you do this, so it would be best to include a switch in your bypass.
Per
Per. My 51 Pacemaker had this set up. There was a 2 pole switch on the dash. When I wanted OD, I switched it on and let off the gas. When I wanted out, I just switched it off. Now, my question is, how do I wire it to by pass the governor on my Commodore? Obviously, one wire goes to the switch and that is the wire that went to the governor, but where does the other wire connect , I'm guessing to a ground?
The wire that goes down to the govenor - just connect that to one side of a switch on the dash, and the other side of the switch to a good ground connection.
Dave Phillips: did you get this fixed up? If not, I can stop over and take a look.
Lew
Dave, if you are hearing a loud click, the odds are the overdrive relay is being engaged. You should also look to make sure the engagement lever/cable is adjusted all the way back and the arm that comes off the overdrive shaft hits the stop when it is pushed all the way in. If it is not adjusted all the way back once engaged, it will not allow the lock out bar to engage internally . Does your trans free-wheel when you push in the lever?. Does the trans lock into a straight 3 speed when you pull the lever out to dis-engage?. There is a lot of good information in this thread from others that needs to be verified to diagnose your concern.
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