Overdrive Problems - Need Help

giinspector

Registered User
Can anyone answer this. I am in the military, stationed in Germany with plenty of opportunities to take my bird out on the AutoBahn and let it spread it's wings. Problem is, my OD has gone out (disengages at around 35 mph - not that I needed it at such low speed, but to see if it worked at all). all other gears work fine. Can anyone tell me what the problem might be?
 
Maybe I'm not clear on what you're asking... But your car is supposed to shift out of overdrive at low speeds.

As best I understand it, OD is simply "4th Gear" on an automatic tranny. It's called "Overdrive" because its at a ratio in which the driveline spins faster than the engine.

Since a transmission can't operate in 4th gear at under 35mph or so, it simply downshifts to 3rd gear (my car actually goes out of OD at 45mph).
 
Simply in 4th gear around 85mph a warning light comes on indicating that I need to upshift to OD, but when I do this the OD does not engage. It is like putting the car in neutral. Of course I ignore the flashing light and iritating bell, at which time around 92mph the computer will start to interupt the fuel flow until you slow down. to below 85. I can creap slowly past 85mph and even get the thing up around 120mph. I have had the car worked on by the local German Ford dealer before and with OD the car would run right around 140mph. So, with that, the problem is the car will not go into OD when driving over 35 mph.
 
Sounds like your OD has gone out on the transmission. My limited experience says you need a rebuild to fix it.
 
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