automatic with warn OD

been figuring things out with my buick swap into my flatty. looks like an auto would be best with my back. So all in all I was wondering if i could use an overdrive with a chevy th350 auto trans? If so how would shifting it work?

 

with my dana 18 with its overdrive you can shift it in whenever you want.
either inbetween shifts(splitting gears), or put it in OD and go through the gears in the tranny. if you put it behind the auto i imagine it would work just the same. you sould leave it out, or direct, and use the autos gears then shift into OD out on the freeway or shift it to OD and run it in lower gears.

 

thats good news to my ears or um eyes rather. lol. I love this site, quick, informative answers.

 

Might not shift very well without the clutch. You will probably have to shift it while stopped.
I usualy leave mine in OD all the time.

RSN

 

I had a warn overdrive behind a C4 Ford automatic. Generally, I left it in overdrive all of the time on the road. Once in a while I would want to shift it and I would need to nudge the automatic up into neutral, then it would shift smoothly, then I would pull it back into drive. I put many miles on this rig and had no problems. I never attempted a downshift of the overdrive while moving. Upshifts were not problem using the method I describe.

 

If I used an automatic, I would only shift the OD in neutral or park. I'm not sure what the official word is on this, but I know that the OD has a blocking ring (synchromesh) in it to allow you to shift on the fly. Shifting with the transmission in gear would put a lot of friction on the blocking ring.

I expect that, if you wanted to shift the OD while moving, you could drop into neutral and shift, then back into drive.

 

just my $.02 ive been reading and thinking about this, so here goes, looks like to me if you just let up off the fuel it would shift like a 2sp rear. I dont know i may be dead wrong. some tractor trailers are equiped with a transmission with the abality to split gears, not very sure what goes on in this process. but it works that way as well, you preshift, slight pause in the fuel and it shifts. maybe apples and oranges though, but it does indeed split the gear in half, i know this from looking at the rpms on the tach.

 

I think I'm going to take the advice that if I'm going on the freeway I'll put it in OD at the light before I get on and if I'm just city driving I'll keep it in stock gear.

 

X2, except with a TH350.
Never really liked the way it shifted but worked.

I did and it wasn't a pretty sound, lets just say I didn't do it again.

This is what I did, direct drive around town then N, shift, back to D on the highway. The little V-6 I had just liked it better but could be driven in OD all the time.