ClassicCar

Pacemaker500

OK. I finally got out on the highway and running 55 today (CBC-HET meet). Push know in, lift gas, NO "THUNK" sound from tranny, push gas pedal, no real noticable drop in RPMs but I am free wheeling when I lift of the gas due to traffic spacing.

So i will be working through all the electrical stuff.

Jon B

Glad you could join us today, nice to meet you, your wife and family at our little outing. But I'm sorry to hear your OD doesn't work. It's usually a simple electrical problem with these OD's. I'm guessing the problem is probably either in the governor switch or in the wiring. I'm sure someone will jump in here with some troubleshooting tips.

We may have already discussed this, but do you have a shop manual, or have you checked the manual on line through the H-E-T "Manuals" Link on the homepage? The OD section starts on page 153 of the PDF (Section 10, page 1) and there is a troubleshooting section that starts on page 175 of the PDF.

Geoff C., N.Z.

Check the relay fuse first.

Park_W

Check to be sure the lockout cable adjustment is correct. With button all the way in, check position of the lockout lever on the OD unit --- it should be all the way to the rear, against the stop.

Tallent R

If you had the solenoid out it my not be installed correctly. If you unbolt it and it just pulls straight out it was not hooked in correctly. It is a twist lock install like a light bulb ,
Roger

bartibog1

make sure you have 12 volts across the fuse on overdrive relay, if its ok go under car and use wire to ground the wire on governor the big solenoid should attempt to pull in if it doesnt keep backtracking til you find a break in the wiring or switch.
steve

Jon B

Regarding the position of the lockout cable, a question: if he's in free-wheeling yet the car won't go into overdrive when he lets up on the accelerator, then the cable is correctly positioned -- isn't it? If the cable wasn't pushing the lever back far enough, he'd still be locked out of OD wouldn't he, and therefore would be in direct drive? Or not? (My OD is the early, primitive one, and that's how IT works, anyway. Ed's is newer and more sophisticated!)

Park_W

Jon, the cable and lever can be back far enough to release the free-wheeling mechanism but not quite far enough to close the lockout switch contacts. This is especially the case with the '47 and earlier cars where the lockout switch is built into the cable (behind the dash); but I think also possible on the later ones.

Jon B

Ahhh! Interesting! Learn something new every day! (Mine's so primitive there ARE no lockout switch contacts!)

kamzack

As an alternative, You may want to run a fused, switched 10 gauge wire to the big post on the selinoid. You can engage overdrive at will. Use a switched hot source on the ignition switch.
Hope this helps,
Kim

onerare39

I had the same issues, same car, my 1950 Pacemaker 50-A... happened to me twice and it was two separate issues.

The first time it was a broken internal retaining ring, inside the overdrive solenoid. I took the solenoid apart and replaced the retaining ring. It was back on the road working perfectly. Cost .75.

The second time same it happened I noticed that my GEN light came on and the overdrive quit at the same time. Turned out to be the generator. The overdrive needs full power from the generator in order to work. I had the generator rebuilt. Cost $125.

If someone could post an exploded view of the solenoid parts I could point out which retaining ring it was.

Hope this helps.

John Forkner

Pacemaker500

John,

Generator is OK. I still have not had time to jack it up and start all the diagnostics yet.

In one of my other OD threads, someone was going to post a schematic that totally removes the kick down switch. I hope it gets posted soon as that gives me a cance to eliminate it as the problem.

DocHubler

I will see if I can dig up the schematic that YnZs sent me for my 1950 50A Pacemaker. It's quite easy to follow the wiring and check where you may have a problem. You should take apart some of the connectors to make sure all is well.

onerare39

If you pulled the connector off of the relay that is mounted on the firewall and it was difficult to remove, you might have pulled the rivets off of the inside of the relay (that's what happens with old stuff). I found this to be the case on a friends OD that I was diagnosing. You will need to remove the relay off of the firewall, open up the tabs that hold the cover on and have a look inside. If they came loose, just re-rivet them. You can find the little brass rivets at Ace Hardware, or just use small machine screws and nuts.

John

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