The Ford Barn

steve fritz · 02-09-2019, 04:11 PM

on the 57 Ford with overdrive there is a white wire with a red terminal insulater that comes out of the harness from the kickdown switch loom. Does that wire go to the ignition switch access terminal ?
Thanks....I found several skematic diagrams but haven't been able to find a drawing that shows the color coded wires.

rotorwrench · 02-09-2019, 05:02 PM

The white wire with red tracer is a ground wire for the ignition coil from the kick down. The coil connection is at the distributor terminal and momentarily ground the ignition until the operating solenoid fully kicks out of overdrive. A plain white wire runs from the governor to the kick down switch. This is from an earlier Lincoln Mercury system but I suspect the colors did not change.

steve fritz · 02-09-2019, 05:10 PM

OK , so that white wire should go to the DIST or Neg side of the coil.?
Then the wire running from the ignition switch(black), should go directly to the relay terminal marked IGN,??

dmsfrr · 02-09-2019, 05:21 PM

There is a white/red wire from the kick-down switch to the distributor/points side of the coil. It grounds out the points to make the engine hesitate just long enough to take the load off the gears so the transmission can shift.
http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/t...re5765-195.jpg

Here's a scan of a generic manual for a 50's Borg Warner Overdrive.
http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/m...rive/index.htm

But as you mentioned, there are no color codes for the wiring, shown on page 11.
http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/m...age_11_jpg.htm

fordrodsteven · 02-09-2019, 07:15 PM

Here's a diagram from my old Parts Digest book that I have. It shows the color codes also!

fordrodsteven · 02-09-2019, 07:27 PM

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This diagram may also be of use:

rotorwrench · 02-10-2019, 12:23 PM

I hesitate when using + or - signs because coil polarity can be wrong. It's different between 6 and 12-volt due to the polarity change. The vast majority of 12-volt cars will have - or negative terminal on the coil as the distributor circuit breaker terminal.

02-09-2019, 04:11 PM	#1
steve fritz Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: onalaska , wisconsin Posts: 535	overdrive wiring on the 57 Ford with overdrive there is a white wire with a red terminal insulater that comes out of the harness from the kickdown switch loom. Does that wire go to the ignition switch access terminal ? Thanks....I found several skematic diagrams but haven't been able to find a drawing that shows the color coded wires.

02-09-2019, 05:02 PM	#2
rotorwrench Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 16,440	Re: overdrive wiring The white wire with red tracer is a ground wire for the ignition coil from the kick down. The coil connection is at the distributor terminal and momentarily ground the ignition until the operating solenoid fully kicks out of overdrive. A plain white wire runs from the governor to the kick down switch. This is from an earlier Lincoln Mercury system but I suspect the colors did not change.

02-09-2019, 05:10 PM	#3
steve fritz Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Location: onalaska , wisconsin Posts: 535	Re: overdrive wiring OK , so that white wire should go to the DIST or Neg side of the coil.? Then the wire running from the ignition switch(black), should go directly to the relay terminal marked IGN,??

02-09-2019, 05:21 PM	#4
dmsfrr Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Abq, NM Posts: 3,607	Re: overdrive wiring There is a white/red wire from the kick-down switch to the distributor/points side of the coil. It grounds out the points to make the engine hesitate just long enough to take the load off the gears so the transmission can shift. http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/t...re5765-195.jpg Here's a scan of a generic manual for a 50's Borg Warner Overdrive. http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/m...rive/index.htm But as you mentioned, there are no color codes for the wiring, shown on page 11. http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/m...age_11_jpg.htm

02-10-2019, 12:23 PM	#7
rotorwrench Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 16,440	Re: overdrive wiring I hesitate when using + or - signs because coil polarity can be wrong. It's different between 6 and 12-volt due to the polarity change. The vast majority of 12-volt cars will have - or negative terminal on the coil as the distributor circuit breaker terminal.