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When I bought my truck about 3 months ago....the OD OFF light wouldn't work, but the switch did. Would work fine. Now nothing. NO OD off option, no light nothing.
Any easy checks before I start replacing parts like the shift lever?
A few of our trucks did that. Just use your knife or strong fingernail to remove the trim ring aroung the OD button at the end of the shifter. Then just pull out the button with its plug. Clean the contacts there may be beer juice in there. It may be that simply to fix.
The button may need to be replaced. The dealers keep them in stock, its cheap.
Or a wire could be frayed between the button and the trans. Very carefully trace every inch of the wire starting at the button and go under the dash. We have found in two differnt trucks in two different places.
Yes, you do need it fixed. You may need to turn off overdrive one day, but the big reason is that the light is your warning light that something is wrong with the trans. A warning light telling you the trans is overheating would have been nice to see at the bottom of that long hill, wouldn't it?
If the truck gets locked out of overdrive then the switch works fine. No need to blow apart your shift lever.
Maybe the light is burnt out. Does it light up when you turn the key on (starting sequence). All of your lights should illuminate at that point, it's a light bulb test.
Have you checked fuses? I don't remember anything specific back up in the tech folder but you might want to go back to the 7.3 forum and see it there's anything there. I've got a 6.0 so I've not spent any time in the specific 7.3 threads.
If the truck gets locked out of overdrive then the switch works fine. No need to blow apart your shift lever.
Maybe the light is burnt out. Does it light up when you turn the key on (starting sequence). All of your lights should illuminate at that point, it's a light bulb test.
No light at start up. Hit the button...Nothing...No light, OD doesn't turn off...nothing. The tranny itself still works fine, just can't turn off the OD option. Although...the button does feel a little "off" from what I am used to from my previous truck. I think I will see about cleaning the contacts. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something like..."Thats the warning your tranny is about to blow up!" I am leaving this weekend to pickup a horse in Minnesota. Round trip Colorado to Minnnesota.
I think the bulb is built into the switch. I had to replace mine because my bulb flickered sometimes (obvious bad connection). I pulled a switch from an exploder or something at the junkyard. The switches are the same across a bunch of models.