Hey Justin,
With the solenoid out of the car, you will need to push the plunger in a bit
to get it into the zone where the coil can act on it. Then it should snap
in. This will at least confirm that one of the coils is working
I think somebody else already gave a good description on the two coils and
how one is the driving force to getting the plunger/piston to move and the
other is a more of holding coil, so I won't go into that.
On the mechanical side, I don't know is you confirmed that the overdrive is
actually engaging once you can get the system electronically shifted. I
guess one way to do that would be to, have the tunnel cover off and drive
the car and have somebody shift that little lever that you are moving to get
the solenoid to pull in and then see what happens. Remember that the system
won't shift emediately. It takes a few seconds for the pressure to build and
the overdrive to engage. I think I've counted as much as 15 seconds with
cold fluid. Its normally more like three seconds.
If you can confirm that the overdrive is actually shifting once the
mechanical lever is moved then you can focus on the solenoid as the culrit.
If the overdrive is not engaging then you probably want to drain the fluid
and clean out the valve seats. there might be some goo in there that is
keeping the pressure from building. one of these is easy to do becuase it is
on the top. The other requires removing the side plate and its a bit tricky.
Just so you know, I spent a little time adjusting my solenoid position and
it didn't take much to get it out of adjustment, so much that the high amp
coil never was turning off and it quickly burned out and then it was time
for a new solenoid. You might want to buy one anyway. Just in case.
Rick Neves
'56 BN-2
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