No overdrive and engine temp question
 

Hey fellas, im new to the diesel world and have a couple of problems/questions with my dodge. Overdrive will work on a cold start for about an hour or so then it will not go into overdrive after this. I suspect its the overdrive solenoid and it seems as this is somewhat of a common problem. I just dont know if its an internal or external solenoid so that i may pull it and test it. Also question about the engine temp, on these trucks there is a "c" at the lowest and "h" at the highest, wondering where the needle is suppose to operate at assuming previous owners kept thermostat factory. Needle currently takes a while(20-30 minutes or more) to even come up above the "c" and highest it gets is to the first line...which is not even halfway through the range of the guage. I have a degree from nascar technical institute and a broad knowledge of gasoline engines but limited on diesels, for the moment! Saying that, most automotive manufactures design their guages to run around dead center of their range at full operating temperature. I guess the simple solution would be to install a new temp guage with numbered increments on it huh. if the guage is true then i would assume thermostat is stuck open as i have seen many times. also where can i get new interior parts and exterior parts as i would like to restore this truck, body and engine is in great shape just need to bring it up to a better condition that its in. Thanks!!

I know very little about the auto trans, but there are some adjustments TV cable and maybe something else. Alot of guy do a mod to wire it with a pot to control OD manually. This seems to be the most reliable solution. Depending on ambient temp, your temp behavior sounds normal. Mine runs right at or under the 1st line most of time and was only a needle width above it driving in to work yesterday on the interstate in 100 degree temp. There's a couple places to get bumpers and body panels. Interior parts probably pretty scarce.

If you look in the sticky at the top of this section you will find the thread for adjusting your TPS. This might solve your OD problem. And your temps sound fine you have to remember that these engines are made to run hard and long under large load, normal day to day driving is gonna lead to them running in the lower part of the normal temp range.

Thanks for the input guys....guess the temp indication is reading right then. as far as the TV and POT what exactly are those? And how do i wire this manual override switch up, im sure there is a link to a thread where it is broken down and explained. Thanks guys, it is much appreciated!

Bobby knows more about the trans. I think the TV cable may be something on the later models. Look into the TPS thing - throttle position sensor. Pot - potentiometer. I've seen threads on it before, just never paid any attention because mine has the Getrag.

I dont know if I would go that far, this week will be teh third time in 6 months mine has come out. :D I'm not much on the OD trannys.... but here is the TV adjustment.

https://www.dieselbombers.com/1st-ge...djustment.html

If that does not work look on the passenger side (someone let me know if I'm wrong) of the tranny and you should find two wires. One should have 12v power with the truck running. The other wire activates OD by GROUNDING out. You can put this wire on a toggle switch that goes to a good GROUND and it should shift then. If this fixes the problem we can begin to troubleshoot why this wire is not getting the right signal.

now with this wire switched to ground, will it switch to overdrive automatically or will i have to switch is myself when i want it to go into overdrive? same for downshifting, will it downshift automatically too?

you will have to flip the switch manually to come in and out of overdrive when you want to.

What he said. But by doing this you will know its not the tranny and you will have OD until we can trouble shoot the problem and fix it right.

thanks fellas, im going out of town tomorrow and wont be back til sunday, so i know what i will be doing come next week. at least i have a starting point now. thanks a bunch guys!!!