My 86 245 daily driver starting having OD issues about three weeks ago, so I parked it. The car's got 349k miles on it and is on its second M46 and OD (probably 150k mi on that trans/OD). Within a week, I went from normal operation to 9 forward gears to intermittent OD non-op to OD would randomly engage on coast, which started getting a little scary because sometimes it would buck and I'd lose traction in the rear at 45 mph+.

I needed to do the clutch and this box has a bad 1-2 synchro, so I planned on doing all this anyway. I have one of Duane Hoberg's rebuild kits from 10 years ago for the OD (is he still around, BTW?). So as I was pulling the whole thing out, I realized the OD wiring from the stick to the case is shot. The ground had 2 strands holding it together and the yellow OD wire that comes up from the from switch on the top of the gearbox was bare for about 4". When I pulled the gearbox, I found that the OD switch in the top cover of the casing seems to be bad. This is the single-pole switch closer to the front -- I'm getting no continuity ever, whether the ball portion is pressed in or not, so I assume it's bad.

I've already fixed the wiring and am sourcing a new switch. I've finished the synchros and will be doing the clutch next. But I'm looking at this OD unit sitting on my bench and wondering to myself -- do I really want to get into this mess? It's been raining like hell lately and I just don't really want to spend the time after Xmas working on this. Maybe it was just the electrics that failed due to bad ground/bare wire. The OD had operated flawlessly until a few weeks ago. I could always finish the other work on the trans and then button it up. If I drive it and find that the OD still needs a rebuild (and it's not the solenoid), then pulling just the OD is a lot easier than the whole trans again. It's definitely not like the last OD failure where it would slip in and out of gear, depending on the speed (pressure loss due to failed seals).

Somebody please talk me into/out of this, wouldja? Thanks.

...Brian...