i just wanted to add some of my thoughts as I have just completed fixing the OD on my wagon.

First, I thought that the solenoid was the problem, and I was wrong. It was working. I Unfortunately spent what seemed to be countless hours unbolting it from the trans to find out it worked fine. I took it and tested it It had a nice lound click. Lesson - hook a hot lead from the battery to the power lead while leaving it in place.

Second, I examined the wire from the underside of the car to the solenoid connector - it is a one pin connection. Lesson - the bare wire was the cause of the problem. I drilled another hole in the top left corner of the shift well, ran another wire which I spliced to the wire that provides power to the solenoid. I decided not to use the one pin connector for fear of connector failure. I reasoned that it was easier to just connect the power wire and the solenoid by solder thant it was to fix the connector and have to go through all this again.

Third. I found the relay behind the glove box, disconnected the OD relay, took the cover of the OD relay and examined the solder connections. I have read that when the OD is shorting out due to bare wire, a solder point can break. That is exactly what happened to me. Lesson - examine the relay and resolder the joint.

Hope this helps. It drove me nuts trying to fix. I would like to extend my thanks for all the info I have found on this site and thought this write up could help someone else.

Aaron