Overdrive relay
 

Hi,

Is there anyone with a 142/144 or 145 with a factory fitted overdrive of 1968 vintage who would be prepared to take a photo of the position of the relay in the engine bay please? I'm in the process of retro fitting a d type overdrive to my 142 and I would like to try and get the position of relay correct before I drill any holes.

Many thanks

Ian

Does your car have a pressed steel bar bolted to the inner wing with relays on? OD relay likely to have been added there when the OD was fitted. Just guessing.

Hi Derek,

Thank you for the reply. The two relays currently on the car (headlamp and ......) are screwed directly to the bulkhead rather than the inner wing. I will take a photo when I get home from work to clarify the existing arrangement.

Ian

existing relays
 

Please see the attached photo of the existing relays as described earlier. Having wiped the bulkhead with a rag I see there are already two holes in that would accept the overdrive relay. The question is whether this is the correct position and I would be grateful to anyone who could answer that.

Ian

It took me a little while to work it outo but I think the photo should be attached.

Would not Rob at Amazon cars know? He has worked on all models.

If an overdrive had been fitted from new, the wiring will doubtless be still there. The wiring to the two existing relays on your bulkhead looks original but no sign of O/D wiring, so I would be looking to trace the remains of it elsewhere. Have you still got the O/D switch on the steering column shroud?

Drop Swedishandgerman a PM, he has a 144 with factory (I assume) OD just now.

Thank you for all your replies! I have been busy since my last post on this subject. Overdrive wasn't fitted from new as far as I can tell although as I said previously I was surprised to find two small holes on the bulkhead to the right of the headlamp relay when I wiped it with a cloth. I have fitted the overdrive relay using these holes and will take a photo and post it as soon as I can.

My 'kit' of parts came from a donor 144 many years ago and was going to be fitted to my first 142. I was lucky to get everything required although the switch on the steering column is broken. Having fitted the relay I was about to snip the wire from the redundant connector when it occurred to me that it might not be so easy to attach it to the instrument panel if I did that. I decided to investigate how the connectors were retained in the white 'holder'. I had a 'scrap' connector with some wires still in it and so I carefully ground the plastic away until I was able to remove one of the connectors. I have attached a few photos of what I found and also of the tool I made from a 3mm roll pin that now allows me to remove these wires as required. I'm not a photographer as you can tell but hopefully you will get the general idea.

Having sorted the electrics out I was able to take the car for a run and try out the overdrive for the first time. It works but the gearbox is very noisy and so I will have to take it back out and put in the decent gearbox that I bought from Gmac the other week. If at first you don't succeed.....

Sorry about the poor quality photo once again but hopefully you can see what I've done. The red wire disappears off down to the overdrive itself and is easily long enough. The other wires disappear into the passenger cabin and again seems to be quite generous in length. The white wire is the one that is now fitted into the white connector on the back of the instrument panel. Not sure if the relay is in the correct position but it does seem to work. Next step will be to drop the o/d gearbox back out and put in the good gearbox I recently bought. I will then strip down the o/d gearbox and see what is what.......