OverDrive Issues

[joes240]

I have a 1993 240 SX SE. I purchased the car last October, in November I started having a weird problem where the OverDrive light would start flashing on and off, putting the car in and out of OverDrive abruptly.

I had it checked out, and they couldn't find a problem, because it mysteriously stopped doing it. So I went about my business, hoping it would work, and about a month ago it started again, but it only would go out of OverDrive once very quickly (making the OD light flash once) and then it would stop.

Yesterday I put new battery terminal clamps on, because the old ones did not stay screwed on tight, making for a bad connection, and causing the connections to corrode rather quickly. The car started fine after the new clamps were installed, I drove home from my friends house, parked the car, and came out later in the evening... I got about a mile down the road and it started it's old problem, flashing rapidly and disgengaging/reingaging the OverDrive system abruptly. Later I tried to start it again and it wouldn't start, so I popped the hood and disconnected/reconnected the negative terminal clamp and it started right up, I thought that fixed it... but I drove around the block and the OverDrive problem started again. Seems to possibly be when I give it alot of gas and accelerate quickly.

ANY ideas and help are greatly appriciated! I thought that maybe the reason it would flash one time and stop could have been due to the old battery terminal clamps not being tight enough, but I'm stumped now. Please help!

[JJ240]

Post once in one section and give people time to answer before repeating it.

[yellow_jacket]

2 things to check.

1)all the wiring running down to the transmission. Make sure nothing is shorting out.

2) the overdrive switch and wiring. Same deal, make sure it is not shorting out. If you are worried about the switch try running it hardwired and see if the problem persists.

If it only does it under hard acceleration it may be that your mounts are wore out and the wires are moving enough to rub on something.

[topless@vabeach]

I have seen a similar problem where the OD switch was bad. When the car shook or hit a bump it would switch the OD on and off. I will have to ask the guy how he rewired it but he just hooked the wires up to keep the OD on. Like I said I am not sure if the switch OD on position is a normaly open or a closed switch. But you can always ohm out the switch and hard wire it to see if its the switch or not.

[kansas240]

that happened to me but it was only when the cruise and headlights were on. in the gauge cluster, the signal is passed around like a new toy. might check for shorts in there as well