Well I Finally Figured Out Why My Overdrive Was Working Only Sometimes!!!!!!

Neal · #1 10-17-2001, 11:47 PM

HI!... Guys : Well today I had some time and decided to figure out why my overdrive switch would only work when in PARK but not in any other of the gears. I took the steering column apart and saw NO broken wires. I got my test light and started probing. Well 2 out of the 3 wires going to the on/off overdrive switch were not getting any current at all. That's with the switch on or off. I grabbed some of the wires and gave them all a quick TUG. The 1ST one was O.K, but the 2ND and 3RD ones stretched when I pulled on them. I cut them in the middle of the "STRETCH" and found out that the sheething was in tact but the wires had broken inside. This was probably caused by me manually shifting so much!LOL! Force of habit, most of my vehicles have all had manual valve bodies in them. The harness for the overdrive switch is quite short and no room has been left for slight tension. I cut the harness and soldered in a 3 inch long extension onto the 3 wires to lengthen the harness. I then used some shrink wrap and taped over that. It works great now. Just thought some of you would like to know, just in case the same thing happens to some of you.

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T Ellenberger · #2 10-18-2001, 11:27 AM

Neal good fix. You never cease to amaze me.
It used to take me 10 minutes to read your sig. I see you now have a toned down version.

gary1930 · #3 10-19-2001, 06:39 PM

of the 3 wires do I solder together to keep the OD on all the time? (I still haven't solved the problem of the switch defaulting to off).

Neal · #4 10-19-2001, 09:32 PM

HI!... GARY1930 : When I 1st cut all three wires off so that I can lengthen them, I left them cut off for about a day. I noticed that while I was driving around running errands that the overdrive stayed on ALL THE TIME. So mabey if you trace the wires down from the overdrive switch you will be able to find where they splice into the main harness under the dash. With some luck hopefully there will be a connection clip there and you can simply unplug it. Give it a try and let us all know.