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Title: Overdrive
Is there anybody out there that has experience with these old Mopar (Borg-Warner?) overdrives? This is what I have going on. I'm getting ready to transplant my '55 Belvedere's "standard" transmission with a "standard + overdrive" transmission from a '55 Plaza. I wanted to test the O/D in the Plaza before I removed it to verify if it works. I have the car up on jack stands so the drive axle can spin freely (the car is not road-worthy). Last night I tried running it but could not get the O/D to "kick in." I'm thinking it's an electrical problem (I have a service manual with the wiring diagrams). I noticed there seems to be a missing wire coming from the O/D relay. The terminal which contains the fuse does not have a wire at the other end of it. It looks like there'd be a low-gauge/high-current wire attached to the end of the fuse housing, but I cannot see it anywhere underhood. Would this perhaps be the circuit to the O/D solenoid? Second, the wiring diagrams show the coil of the kick-down switch is part of the regular operation circuit. I have removed the carburetor for re-build (installed a different carb. to get the engine running), and determined that the corresponding coil wires would have to be joined together for my test. Do I have the right idea there? Third, my '55 Belvedere has a 12V neg. gnd. electric system. I was debating whether to (1) install voltage reducers in the O/D circuitry, (2) replace the components (relay, solenoid, governor) with 12V units from '56 or later, or (3) converting my car back to 6V. Any thoughts on these ideas? Finally, I'm aware that the O/D cars were originally equipped with the 4.11 rear end ratio. My Belvy has the standard 3.73 ratio. I'm planning on trying the O/D with the 3.73 rear-end to see how it performs. I expect it to be sluggish/unusable at speeds below 55 mph, but from 55 to 70 that it'd be just right. Any thoughts? If you respond to the list, please copy me directly. Jason Rogers
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