1951 Mercury Overdrive

Tommy Gun said:
Scooder might be on to something....I started with turning the ignition on and off and nothing happened with the solenoid. A short time later, I would turn the ignition on and off and the solenoid engaged/disengaged with the ignition. Huh?

I checked the relay and all is good. It clicks and has continuity when engaged. All connections looks good.

Now, the solenoid won't engage/disengage with the ignition.

I do notice that the shifter knob and arms move smoother after that solenoid manipulation. Perhaps something was still partially engaged causing the shifting to be less smooth....now it's smooth?

Note: I was just messing with the shifter in the garage while the car's on jacks. I haven't driven it.
Click to expand...

This points to it being electrical, which is easier than pulling the trans n stuff.
You need to be all over it with an electric tester to find out why after the short period of time the relay activates the solenoid.
If you're proficient with the tester should be a quick find.
Good luck,
Martin.
 
Well, I wasn't having any luck with finding an obvious problem. So I took everything apart to clean and check the connections. The last thing I did was take the governor cover off to clean the contact points with a file and I broke it in the process.....stupid me...One of the springy tabs holding the point in broke within the cap...it seamed very brittle.

Does anyone have a cap they want to sell or know where I can find one? Mine is the 3 screw plastic cap. I tried checking with Vanpelts and Vintage Garage....I haven't heard back.

Thanks!
 
Check with Barnfind08 here on the bard (southside obsolete). He may have NOS stuff. I've found NOS stuff on flea-pay too. FoMoCo wasn't the only company to use the Borg Warner OD so there is stuff out there for all the R10 type overdrives. Most of them used the same solenoids and governors but there are variations. The governor for a Mercury unit is 8M-6943. 8M-6919 is also a number used for the governor switch.

The old Bendix made 3-screw cover types don't show up often. This link is to one in a Mopar box but it is likely the same for all of the types.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/363925712157?hash=item54bba9ad1d:g:p9wAAOSw0vti5Gad
 
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That's pretty close to my cap and it looks like it contains the part that broke. At the very least, I can grab it and take out the part I need. Thank you rotorwrench!
 
Update: I ended up replacing the governor with a NOS one from Van Pelts. I took it for a few test runs and everything is working properly. So, not exactly sure what the problem was.

I have always had some trans gear oil dripping from the base of the solenoid. I replaced the seal during this whole process, but it still drips. That doesn't seem normal, what do you think?
 
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