My '93 244 Classic has an issue with the overdrive. Over the weekend it stopped kicking in when on the parkway. At the time I thought it was the kickdown cable which had binded on me in the past. Checked that and it was fine. Today I had a chance to check under the car and sure enough the wire to the solenoid was completely severed. There was heavy corrosion so it was clearly on its way out for some time. With great effort I repaired/replaced the wire and bundled the wire securely to avoid a future repeat. When I went for a test drive there still wasn't any overdrive. The relay clicks and the light comes on when disengaged. Could the solenoid have been damaged by a shorted wire? What else should I check? It was a major pain to replace the wire, so I sure hope it's something simple!

Check the fuse.

Solenoid is the least likely part of that system to fail, but it does happen.

Edit: Just read your post closer, and I can't remember if the relay is powered from the same fuse as the solenoid, but check it anyway. To check the solenoid, you can pull it off the car and power it up at your battery. You will feel and hear the click. Or find a way to run 12v under the car to it, you should still hear it engage.

If all else fails, you can modify the solenoid to always work, like the IPD bypass plate.

All of Scorron postings are great possibilities or sometimes the valve on the solenoid gets dirty and becomes sticky.
Operate it with some battery current and some carb cleaner. Use that along with compressed air will help if you need to pull it.

Phil

Just checked the wiring diagrams, and it looks like the relay is powered off of the same fuse, no. 11, as I would expect. If they relay is switching the light on the gauge cluster, then you are at least getting power to there, and it sounds like the wiring in the shifter button is fine.

Only two other possible faults remain: your wiring to the solenoid is not continuous (still broken somewhere, or a poor connection is preventing it from energizing the solenoid); or your solenoid is bad. Actually, I suppose a third, but less likely problem could be that the relay is switching the (ground, I think?) for the indicator lamp, but not passing power to the solenoid. You can verify that by back-probing terminal 87 (a white wire) with a voltmeter or test lamp to see if you have battery voltage.

You could also, btw, use an ohmmeter to check for continuity on your solenoid. With one lead on the wire you just replaced and one on a good clean ground, you should be showing only a little over 13 ohms, IIRC, assuming the wire has continuity and the solenoid is good. Infinite resistance (no reading, no continuity) could mean the wiring is faulty or the solenoid is burned out.

To answer your earlier question directly, the frayed/broken wire would do nothing but blow a fuse, not harm the solenoid.

Good luck!

Thanks very much for all of the helpful diagnostic info. I'm going to go through the checks. I can't imagine what the chances are of the solenoid failing at the exact moment the wire broke - the solenoid was operating great until the wire failed. I'll check, but I'm assuming the solenoid is fine. I've read about soldering the relay as well so I'll try all of these things. Otherwise, the IPD/DIY bypass is an appealing option. I do use the overdrive to pass on occasion though, and with a loaded trunk and kids in the back I'm suspicious of the kickdown function. We'll see. But thanks again very much!

"Otherwise, the IPD/DIY bypass is an appealing option." Honestly, the DIY path is 98% as simple as the bypass plate..it takes longer to find your Dremel than is does to cut the slot and remove the o-ring.

No matter what, if you are removing the solenoid for any reason, get the almost inaccessible area around the solenoid a close to spotless as you can.