I got it, I just assumed the other wire was a ground.





thanks, Mark

Some body do a schematic of what doug's trying to say.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Like Doug says, use the blue wire to your switch. The orange wire doesn't get used, it's for the kickdown circuit which you won't be using.

  Dennis in Lititz PA

So , on my OD solenoid I have two wires which I thought was hot and common. They are both hot????





thanks, Mark

Hey guys thanks for all the info. I will work on the trans this weekend. Hopefully I will have overdrive when done. Not to critical to have it working, I'm not planning any long or many highway trips but it still would be nice to have until I could an AOD adapter kit.

Doug, feel free to disagree.  Thanks for setting me straight as I was wrong in stating that the governor is a direct wire-in as I described it.  I’ll totally agree that adding a relay to the system is the ideal method for inserting the governor back into the overdrive wiring.

 

You did jog my memory though on what I had originally done on my ’55 which was rewire the solenoid internally so it had it’s own dedicated ground or negative wire coming from the coil within the solenoid rather than being grounded to the case.  This simply allowed for a much less complicated wiring scheme without a relay.  At the time this was much quicker and easier than a complete rewire of that system.  This setup is still working fine after 20+ years but the weak point of this system are the breaker points within the governor with the amp load that’s applied whenever activating it.  That will eventually have to be readdressed by putting a relay put back into the system but for now, still working fine.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

This is a discussion on BW overdrive. At the very bottom of the page is a schematic of how the factory wired them. 

http://www.hydratech.com/pctc/Public_Documents/bwwiring.pdf

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

The latest hemmings magazine has a simple detail of the typical wiring for overdrives.

55 Vicky & customline

58 Rack Dump, 55 F350 yard truck, 57 F100

59 & 61 P 400's, 58 F100 custom cab, 69 F100, 79 F150, 82 F600 ramp truck, 90 mustang conv 7 up, 94 Mustang, Should I continue?

I have a 56 ford overdrive manual that has the wireing diagram you need.Give me a PM with your address and i will copy it and send it to you   Carl

Hi Ted and Elvis,

AS much as I hate to disagree with Ted, in this case there is a problem with the idea that you can use the govenor without the overdrive relay.  The gov allows the relay to activate by grounding the relay's coil.  It is a low amperage circuit that functions through the kickdown switch to power up the relay's coil. Wired the way Ted suggests the governor will just short out to ground when it reaches the critical speed. 

The OD solenoid is already grounded so it needs no separate ground.  The second (orange) wire  functions with the kickdown switch to short out the ignition momentarily so there is no torque from the engine so the OD can disengage hence the kickdown. 

There are two coils in the OD solenoid one is a rapid strong pull-in coil that takes a high current draw hence the 30 amp fuse. But  it is only momentary because there is a second coil that retains the solenoid engaged but draws a very few amps.

There is a very clear wiring diagram in the '56 shop manual on pg 132.  My scanner is busted so I can not post it.

Doug T

The Highlands, Louisville, Ky.