A few days ago I posted a message discribing an overdrive that would not turn off on my 245.
I got my hands on an old relay, and as recommended by Bob, I opened it, resoldered the cracks and even put the jumper wire as shown in the picture. I then took it for a drive and voila! problem fixed....for about three minutes and tnen the arrow indicator and OD came back on. I reinspected it and could find no indications of a problem. I then opened the original relay which had different ending serial numbers and slightly different inside and it looked fine. My question is...is there something shorting out my relay? Where's a good place to start looking? I have a feeling that if I go out and buy a new relay, whatever will fry that one too.
Many thanks, Sam

bytw, is it okay to drive without the relay? It's the weekend and I live an hour from the nearest dealer.

Check the o/d wire where it comes out of the shifter box under the car. The wire tends to rub through where it rests on top of the transmission. Slit a 3 inch piece of vacuum hose and slide it over the wire. Try not to move the wire too much, the insulation tends to fall off. Hope this helps.

Sam --

Try resoldering your relay again -- it costs nothing to do and takes little time. This time, resolder the ENTIRE circuit board, not just the cracks you could see. This is because sometimes the cracks are invisible to the unaided eye. In other words, you might have missed one or two cracks.

Also -- use a good sized iron (I use a 250W gun) on the larger solder connections. The tabs of the relay frame and the connectors are iron and don't adhere to the solder as readily as copper. You need good solder, good rosin, lotsa heat (quickly), and a "scrubbing" action.

If the indicator again illuminates, you might find a short between the two wires that go to the OD pushbutton. If you bridge or jump these wires (which is the same as holding in the pushbutton) the relay stays locked "out."

"...okay to drive without the relay?"

Sure. You'll have no OD, but that won't hurt anything except your nerves.
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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

>>"...okay to drive without the relay?"
>Sure. You'll have no OD, but that won't hurt anything except your nerves.

And your gas mileage....

Yeah, perhaps a tad. But fuel is consumed mostly by vehicle resistance (wind, rolling) and much less by engine losses. The engine speed goes up by around 20%, so that results in a slight increase in friction and pumping losses.
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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Hi Don,

I tried locating my fuel pump and od relay today. Came home with two smaller relays than the picts you posted before, but they were the only relays
I could find on the passenger side firewall.

Both have the part number 1 215 613, which comes up on the internet parts catalog as a fuel pump relay. But the internals do not have any
circuitry that can be soldered. both are five prong and have SR 9704 stamped on the side.

Do I have the wrong relays?

Thanks,

Larry

Larry --

Fix your email. It's set to "vacation" mode. (They let docs take vacation?)
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Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)