Muncie 3 speed....overdrive hookup???

[hillbilly]

Ok, I finally found another one, dude gave it to me, perfect condition...

one lil snag though...

There are two doo-hickeys that have a wire goin to them...

one is the solenoid, which I know must be hooked up in order to work, the other is some sort of gear driven thing...

I have never hooked one of these up...what wires up where?

[Nads]

Don't know about GM, but on my Packard OD, I simply found the wire that clicked the solenoid and hooked it to a toggle switch. It was super easy. Does your tranny have a freewheeling lever? It's a simple mechanical doohickey on the side. The other electrical component is a governer, it can be bypassed completely.
It won't go into overdrive until you're freewheeling and you'll damage the unit. Put a cable to operate the FW lever and NEVER put the car into regular drive until you're at a complete stop. Hope this helps.

[hillbilly]

kool, nads! that helps out bunches! One would think there would be something about these things online somewhere, but if there is, I cant find it....

[overspray]

The part with the gear is the governor which allows the solenoid to activate at cut-in speed (up) 30mph and cut-out speed (down) 26mph. You should be able to find the wiring diagram on a gm site. overspray

[Rocky]

The cylinder on the right side of the tranny is the governor and the one on the left is the solenoid. I simply ran a hot wire [only with the key "on"] to an under- dash-mounted "off-on" toggle switch and from the switch to the solenoid wire. I disregarded the governor wiring entirely.
I ran a Morse cable from a dash-mounted knob to the free-wheeling lever on the tranny and operated my overdrive manually.
It worked like a champ. Gave me 6 speeds forward and I went into and out of overdrive at speed many times. There is a knack to driving an overdrive this way and it will last a lot longer if you don't use your overdrive in 1st [or even 2nd] gears because of the added strain the torque multiplication puts on the overdrive unit. If you used it in 3rd gear only, it'd last a million years.
Not me....I just hadda impress the troops with the exhaust note going through all 6 gears with the pedal to the metal, letting up only to shift..
Start out in 1st, under [with the cable pushed in]and wind it up, tripping the switch while accelerating...let off the gas and it falls into 1st, overdrive. Accelerate again while moving the toggle switch to its' original position and simply push in the clutch and shift to 2nd. Now, you're in 2nd and under. Step on the gas and accelerate again while simultanously clicking the switch and let off....the overdrive engages and you just step on the pedal again...you're magically in 2nd and over...
Do the same dance in 3rd gear.
When you wanna come out of overdrive, its' easy.
Put a little pressure on the gas pedal to get the slack outa the drive train and click the toggle switch. Let off the gas and the tranny comes out of overdrive but you'll be freewheeling. I don't like freewheeling, so I keep a little power on the drivetrain with the gas pedal again and simply pull the cable knob out. You're now out of overdrive and not freewheeling....just as if you didn't even have overdrive.
It takes a little getting used to but a real gear head can master it in an hour.
I kept the overdrive switch and knob close to each other on the left side of the steering column to free up my right hand for shifting the tranny.
I drove my chevy pickup this way for 6 years but eventually, the strain of driving the tranny in 1st and over took it's toll on the already-worn tranny and the sprag unit in the overdrive finally did the chicken.
I'll never forget the look on FlyinJ1's face the first time he rode with me in that pickup as I went through 6 forward gears with a COLUMN SHIFT! Priceless!