Dear Friends,

I finally found the OD relay on my '89 244 Automatic. It was easy - just
remove the glove compartment by taking out the obvious screws and look to
the left for the white square thing.

Here is all the information I could find on it.

12V
5DA
004038-01
Schrittschalt-Steuergera(omlaut)t
1347764
Made in Germany
Hella

Then on the other side:

508
C4 Q (upside down Q thingy)

The plug looks like this:

| 15
87a
| _ |
86 _ 31


What's the cheapest/bestest way to get one of these? a local import parts store quoted me $42 to have it tomorrow.

Also, I'm curious as to the consequences of just unplugging this baby and
driving without it. Will it make my car be stuck in OD, or stuck out of OD?
Will the car run at all? Will I brake something?

I want to take a trip to P-town this weekend, so I'm looking for a quick fix
:)

Thanks for your groovy help,

-Russell

Russ- while you could replace the relay for $42 or try to jumper it, I would remove it, open it up, and solder the pins inside. Sometimes, the solder joints on the circuit board crack and the relay can't conduct any power. Since it's working intermittently, I'd bet that this is the problem. A new relay would fix it as well- perhaps you want to install the new one for peace of mind, and solder the old one to keep as a spare.
Hopefully the solenoid is not the trouble- it's under the car, as described on the left side of the transmission, but it's tough to get it out without gettign completely filthy, and also is expensive to replace.
You can safely drive up to about 85 mph with OD not working. Your gas mileage will suffer, but it isn't going to blow up the car. And as noted, without the relay, OD is off- the highest gear available is 3rd.
I'm tracking this down in my 91 at the moment- it works very occasionally. I've done the relay and checked the fuses, and tomorrow I'll go after the solenoid, but it's not a fun or easy job. It's also critical to keep dirt out of the thing, and its a really dirty area to work- so it's easy to screw up even a good new solenoid.
I'd recommend that if you don't get it working before you leave, get it to a shop when you return. By the way if you're heading to P-town, you'll drive right by FCP Groton (www.fcpgroton.com) and you could pick up a relay for a good price. Exit 87 on I-95 in Connecticut.
Good luck!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 221K, 88 744GLE- 202K, 91 244 181K, 88 244GL 145K

P-town left coast. :(

Ok, so I'm pretty sure its the relay not the wires. I finally found the
wires and they seem a little rough, but I couldn't find any way to replace
them. I exposed the relay and pressed the button. It would click and the
OD light would change most of the time, but then it would stop working for
no reason. I took it apart and tried to clean some of the corrosion on the
solder, but that didn't really fix anything. I couldn't find any cracked or broken solder points. It got to where I could push the button, and the OD would disengage, then push the button again, nothing would happen, then I would flick the relay and it would engage.

My solution for this weekend is to stuff some cardboard paper in there
in such a way as to hold the relay closed so that the button pushing does
nothing.

Is that a bad idea? It seemed to be pretty hot after riding it for a little
while, but I don't know how it usually is. Any reason not to do this? I'll
be ordering a replacement relay too, but I'm sure it won't be here in time
for my trip.

In my case, the overdrive problem was a broken fuse.

Russel,

I have recently had the same problem. After learning about how the "system" works, I discovered the wire that goes to the selenoid had rotted. Replaced the wire and no problem. The selenoid needs to have power to enable the O/D. The relay does this. Without it you only have 3 gears.

It would be easy enough to go to a junk yard and get a replacement relay. Or you could bypass the relay. Just figure out which wire is always hot (yellow?)and which one goes to the tranny thru the stick shift area(white?). Put the wires together and bingo.

I'd like to bypass it at least for this trip. I don't know if you saw my original diagram, but which of these wire would I use to bypass?:

The plug looks like this:

     | 15
   87a
  |   _   |
86  _   31



The - | dashes are the plugs that come out, and the numbers are the numbers printed on the plastic.

Do as the others suggest - check wiring down to the OD solenoid (mine was broken when I got it), also the wires going up into the shifter to the switch tend to fray and short.

If you are handy with a soldering iron you can also take your relay apart and re-solder (hehe, "Fosterize") the connections on the little circuit board, especially the larger gauge ones. I have yet to open up an OD relay of any vintage that didn't have bad solder joints!

Justin B.
83 Turbo

THe $42.00 for a simple relay is too much expensive.
You can buy any other aftermarket type, they do just fine.

((I always keep one spare in my care, also a previous timing belt))

Whitout the relay you can' t use your OD.
To BE 100% sure, test drive your car and see what it does.

Using the overdrive can' t result in a change of gear, because the relay is missing.


Carefull, protect the bare wirings from touching the body of your car...


succes
--
240 '88 B200K wite sedan 255K km Europe virgo+all turbo gauges, Phoenix Gold + Kenwood ampli, Focal door speakers + tweeters, Kenwood 6'x 9', 10 CD changer in enlarged globe cabinet, dubble rear coil springs , hitch, fog lights, 2 extra rectangular pencil lights, 2 X 3 rear red driving lights

Are you sure it is inop? You can start your car and push the od switch on your shifter and hear/feel if it is working. If it is working then you'll need the od solenoid and renovate the wiring coming down from the shifter. It tends to rub against metal and ground out. Poor design. If it is your relay, it won't hurt your car to run in third for your trip.
--
92 244 lowered, Bilsteins, IPD sways, Unitek cam/header, TSW Revo 18x8's - 94 965 Niiice MONEY PIT! - 76 Datsun 280Z lowered, modified head, cam, headers, intake

I'm not sure what to listen for or feel for to see if its working. Here's the behaviour I've been experiencing:

I've been having an intermittant problem on my automatic '89 244 GL. The
"up arrow" sometimes is on when I turn on the car, and won't go off no
matter how many times I push the button on the automatic gear lever. The
arrow is working correctly because when I go up to high speeds, I stay in
power gear instead of going to overdrive.

One time I pulled over at a rest area off the freeway, turned off the car,
turned it back on, and everything was fine and normal. Sometimes it just
goes away after a few minutes of around-town driving.

Any suggestions? What would you do if that happened to you?

-Russell Mann

-----------------------------
1981 240 DL - The Yellow Dart
(For Sale - email for details)

1989 240 GL

The relay should click which can be hear with the glove box removed. If you hold it you'll feel a "click". Don't waste your time trying to bypass the relay. Just drive it! Repair another day!
--
92 244 lowered, Bilsteins, IPD sways, Unitek cam/header, TSW Revo 18x8's - 94 965 Niiice MONEY PIT! - 76 Datsun 280Z lowered, modified head, cam, headers, intake

I would first crawl under the car and find the solenoid that mounts to the tranny. It is on the driver's side of the tranny, about midway up. I would carefully pull of the protective sleeve that covers the solenoid wire about 2 feet and see the condition of the wire. If it is frayed or doesn't look right, keep working your way back until you find good wire and then spice some good stuff it. See if that works. If that doesn't, then you need to pull your OD relay, open it up, and look for a bad solder.


--Joe HC

I crawled under and couldn't find anything! I'm probably too fat to get under there far enough.

Put the car up on sturdy jackstands, or ramps, and crawl under it with a good light. The OD solenoid is on the l/h lower side of the tranny a little to the rear of center. It is a small gizmo held on with two bolts and SHOULD have one wire going into it. I would think the Haynes or Bently's would show a diagram that might show you where it's at... Once you find it, follow the wire and see if it has any breaks or bare spots. It will go into the front/lower part of the shifter housing through a rubber grommet type thingy...

Justin