R-11 was for heavy-duty applications, including the bigger, heavier cars like Packard and Lincoln, and higher horsepower applications in later years. R-10 was the standard overdrive model and the most common. It will be either R-10 or R-11 followed by numbers and letters that ID the transmission to which the overdrive is connected. If you look toward the rear of the transmission where the solenoid is located, you will see an identification ID cast into the overdrive housing. Studebaker sold the most overdrive options by far, though a variety of other companies including Chevrolet, Ford, Frazier, Hudson, Kaiser, Lincoln, Mercury, Nash, Packard, and Willys-Overland also offered the overdrive as an option
Part of the popularity of the overdrive transmission as an option was the price. Over two million overdrive options were sold by 1950 and well over four million were sold by the end of 1973, the last year the overdrive option was available, only from Ford. Manufactured by Borg-Warner Corporation, the overdrive option was offered on 22 different car models.
Traveling salesmen in particular were fans, especially if they were working strictly on commission and had to buy their own fuel. Even after the war the overdrive option continued to be popular. Especially during World War II with gas rationing in effect, anything that increased mileage was welcome.
It didn’t take long for the overdrive to catch on as a popular option. This latest design, the most compact in design, would become the standard design for the remaining life of the overdrive. In the late 1940s the standard method used to control the engagement of the overdrive was by holding the sun gear stationery. Once the car was safely passed, the driver could just lift his foot and the transmission would shift back into overdrive. This proved to be quite handy when pulling out to pass another car on the highway. With the introduction of electrically controlled overdrives in 1939, the driver could easily shift down to a conventional higher gear by simply depressing the gas pedal to the floor, which engaged the “kick down switch” and the higher gear. All three methods have been used over the years. The planetary unit is the heart of the overdrive and its engagement is controlled by one of three ways – by the pinion gear, the internal gear or by the sun gear.
The early overdrive transmission is actually a two-speed planetary transmission attached to the rear portion of a standard three-speed transmission. B org-Warner overdrive transmissions were first introduced in 1934, originally designed to reduce engine rpms at highway speeds.
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