In a message dated 07/08/02 8:23:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
leylandauto@yahoo.com writes:
> BTW I will now admit to the crowd that on at least three occassions in the
> early days of owner ship when my wife and I were using the OD much more
> than needed we left the OD engaged while in reverse. So far I think Lord
> Lucas has been Very forgiving of us.
There should be a switch on the transmission that disables the solenoid when
the gear lever is in anything but the 3rd/4th plane. In which case you
wouldn't have caused any problem by leaving it on.
In my limited experience with an OD being energized when shifting into
reverse with the isolator switch bypassed, (not on any of my cars, I hasten
to add) it will almost immediately trash the OD unit.
There is nothing wrong with using the OD a lot. It is really meant to be a
relaxed cruising aid, and we almost always use it on the highway in our MGC,
even though the non-OD gear is already much longer than the MGB.
In racing use, it is definitely advisable to lift off when shifting to save
the friction surfaces. I see people post that you needn't do that, and on the
street, I would tend to agree, but on the track, when you are shifting at,
say 6500 rpm, maintaining full throttle will definitely cause accelerated
wear - I've torn down boxes from cars whose owners habitually did this.
And on the street, why would you need to keep your foot on the floor for the
OD shift? What's the hurry?
BTW, on Triumphs, they used to allow OD on 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Great for
people that wanted rowing practice, but unless you were in stop and go slowly
moving traffic, when 2 - 2OD could be useful, there really wasn't much point.
Bill
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