Sticky Overdrive

George49Ford

George49Ford

Senior Member
The '54 and up side of the house has a recommendation to use ATF in overdrive to take care of sticking overdrive in a '54. Anyone know of any problems with this? My '49 is sticking.

Thanks, George M.
 
Please explain what you mean by "my sticking o.d."
ATF seems way to thin for your o.d. trans.
 
If you feel it's "sticking", it's probably an electrical problem. I wouldn't put ATF in there under any circumstances.
 
Take the solenoid off and make sure it is working freely. It can be dismantled but make sure you put the shaft back in the hex correctly.
 
Thanks for input so far. I hear the click and I can see the amp guage take a drop so I know it's getting "juice". It doesn't want to click in. Eventually, after several tries, it will drop in. It was a rebuild about 7 or 8 years ago. Tnx, George M
 
You've checked the oil level in both sections....the main gearbox AND the overdrive section? Was it up to the level of the filler plugs? Were you using regular manual transmission gear oil? No funky oddball additives in there?

The click could be trying to move the OD pawl but not succeeding due to low voltage at the solenoid. If there is some kind of physical restriction that prevents the pawl from engaging the balk ring gear, you may need to pull the unit out and do an internal inspection.
 
take the solenoid out remove cap and file points it will work ok then ,,with bad points even when you try it out on the floor they will click but different story when in car
 
George49Ford said:
The '54 and up side of the house has a recommendation to use ATF in overdrive to take care of sticking overdrive in a '54. Anyone know of any problems with this? My '49 is sticking.

Thanks, George M.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what "up side of house" has to do with it. Sounds like it is throwing something like fluid up against the side of the house. LOL Elucidate please.
 
Also check the governor. It has a set of contact points that also have to be clean for proper operation.
 
Shoulld have a fill plug close to the Governor but there are internal parts righ by it and hard to fill. I remove the governor and fill from there and when it runs out the regular fill hole I know its full.I always use EP90 and never used ATF in a standard transmission back then.
 
My memory of the 49-50 shop manual says to fill both the transmission and the overdrive through the transmission fill hole. I experimented on the 50 I used to own and found out that you basically can't fill the overdrive through the overdrive fill hole. The fill hole is right next to the overdrive ring gear and is so close there isn't room for 90W to go past the ring gear. I didn't think of pulling the governor, but filling both through the transmission was pretty easy.
 
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