With electrical working & lever locked in odrive & no odrive or free wheeling, sounds like mechanical problem in odrive unit. The 1955 Chevy Truck Shop Manual, reprints sold by many aftermarket suppliers, has a whole section on the odrive trans including rebuilding and trouble shooting. I highly recommend getting a manual.
I made my floor jack serve as a trans jack by welding a "basket" using 1/4" square steel rod & 1/4" steel plate to hold the trans with a 1 1/2" diameter short round steel rod on the bottom of the basket that fits into the hole on my 2 ton floor jack. It makes it easy to lift the trans & easy to roll the trans in/out during R&R. I drilled a hole in the plate steel for the trans drain plug to fit into so the trans fits securely in the basket. Buy a trans spline plastic replica alignment tool (when you buy the manual)to align the gear in the center of the clutch plate (if you moved the clutch pedal)for getting trans spline to easily slide in when intalling trans. No more need for 3 letter words.
When filling the trans with fluid, always pull the side plug on the overdrive section and fill it first, before filling the trans gear section. Filling the trans gear section with fluid without filling the odrive section first can ruin the odrive parts before the fluid works it way into the odrive section when driving. So says my trans rebuilder who has been rebuilding them for over 50 years. I have had the 3 speed odrive in my daily driver 54 1/2 ton for over 30 years and love it - 70 mph & under 2k rpms with the original 235. Good luck.
Last edited by truckcamper43; 09/14/2009 5:50 PM.
