I've recently been having issues with my transmission. Im bringing it to a tranny shop tomorrow for diagnosis tomorrow, but my brother points to my use of overdrive as my issue. His theory is that as soon as you start your truck up you should be turning o/d off unless you are driving at highway speeds. he says around town o/d causes your tranny to shift too often and its hard on things. my theory is that the truck was designed to drive with overdrive on unless your towing heavy or pulling a long steep grade. any thoughts?

 

Having just a little experience with this to speak from, I think you are correct.

D

 

Your brother is an idiot about trucks and transmissions.

Unless he's buying the beer, I wouldn't hang out with him.

 

My thoughts on overdrive? I don't know why the manufacturers took so long in offering it on all cars. I had a 1959 Chevy Impala coupe that came with a manual 3 on a tree transmission with electric overdrive. That car came with a 4.11 rear which was standard on the OD 230hp V8s and it would blow the doors off cars it shouldn't have been able to because of that rear gear and with the OD it got great gas mileage on the highway. I loved that car.

 

To simplify the argument, I would just ask him why they didn't provide an overdrive on button instead of an overdrive off button. That way it wouldn't be on until those special times that you need it.

 

this was indeed the very point i made to him. He actually is a very talented mechanic and fabricator. Im thinking it was a family friend whom he trusts that put this idea in his head, however this friend is known to blow smoke.

 

I've run into many people that believe that. It doesn't make it true.