The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Saginaw 3-speed Overdrive Question

I got a nice test drive in yesterday, 50 miles out then 50 miles back. I had to readjust the kickdown switch height after an earlier test drive, but the whole system worked well yesterday. It is a fun toy, and I am very happy with it. With my 3.73 differential I find that I want to lock the overdrive out when driving on 35 mph roads and on 45 mph roads going just stoplight to stoplight. I leave it ready to engage on 55 mph and up roads. The solenoid engages before I like to shift into 3rd gear. Sometimes I let the overdrive engage while in 2nd then run 2nd OD until I want to shift to 3rd OD. Sometimes I shift early into 3rd then run that until I want to let the overdrive engage. I have not yet chosen which one I like better.

Thank you to everyone who offered help and advice. It looks like my original solenoid was sometimes working and sometimes shorting. Fred's fix, noted above, took care of that problem.

Since last Fall I have been driving only short drives while I was working on this overdrive project and also getting my front disc brake conversion to work as it should. I had noticed the truck running a little rougher than I am used to. An added bonus for me is that somewhere during its 100 mile drive at 60ish mph that cleared up, and it is back to running perfectly smoothly.