Jon he say:
> I'm the proud owner today of a 79 1500 Spitfire!
Well congrats and welcome to the club.
> At highway speeds in high it is solid only in first or second does it slip.
The OD should have a lockout switch on the transmission that prevents it
from engaging in 1st or 2nd. Inotherwords, it isn't supposed to do what you
are trying to do! The OD in the the big TR's engaged in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th,
but in the Spitfire only in 3rd and 4th. The supposed explanation for why
Triumph locked it out of 2nd is that the smaller unit couldn't handle the
higher torque of the lower gears. So the fact that it is slipping should
not be a surprise.
The bigger question then is why yours engages in 1st and 2nd at all.
Perhaps your tranny switch is broken. Perhaps you have a wiring short. A
more likely explanation is that a DPO (i.e. Dumb Previous Owner) wired it
that way so that it would engage regardless of the tranny switch. Perhaps
he/she did it because the switch or some wiring was busted and wouldn't let
the OD engage at all.
Whatever the case, you should absolutely avoid using OD in 1st and 2nd!
Also note that running OD in reverse is supposed to damage its clutch
surfaces, so another purpose of the lockout switch was to prevent accidental
use in reverse. You *really* should find the problem and fix it. Trust me,
despite your best intentions you will one day accidentally pull to a stop in
OD, then shift into 1st or 2nd or reverse without thinking about it. The
switches are available, I believe. To get to the switch and wiring you may
have to pull out the tranny tunnel cover, which is a pain in the butt and
time consuming but not difficult. If you do pull the tunnel cover, take the
opportunity to top up or replace the tranny oil. (I use Castrol 80/90
Hypoy.) The OD requires a good oil level to engage.
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
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