O/D off Overdrive Toggle

Hey Taco Gang,

I had my gear shift knob (automatic) break off. I was able to drive it still, literally just the knob broke, so it was just like a naked stick with a button at the top and the knob hanging off.

Anyways, I wanna was searched for a replacement on eBay and elsewhere online and couldn’t find anything, mainly because of the overdrive toggle. I reached out to Toyota and it would’ve cost around $300 to get it fixed, ya no thanks. I went to junkyard and found a knob that fit from an old 4Runner.

My issue was I couldn’t splice the wires for the O/D toggle, so I cut it em with enough extra wire to try again later.

As of now I’m driving with my O/D Off. The truck is my everyday vehicle and the most I’ll ever drive it is a couple hours to go camping.

I have a few questions, is there long term consequences to driving with O/D off? If so, should I repair finding an actual 04 shift knob, or go Toyota? And is there a way to turn the O/D on somewhere else in the vehicle (besides the button I cut off)?

Thanks all, you all been helping me out with my fun truck issues

 

There is no damage that can be done driving with it off other than not being able to get up to 50mph without it screaming haha.
I’ve been driving without overdrive for almost a year now, had pink milkshake and it started slipping in overdrive, I have had no issues over the past year, although the past 5 months I’ve been driving it on and off since I got a donor truck for my manual swap, but I wouldn’t sweat it. It’s pretty much the equivalent of having a manual and only shifting to 3rd and never upshifting, your engine and trans are still working the same you just don’t have speed. At least if you keep the rpms consistently low, of course driving it at 3k or higher all the time would most likely add some premature wear haha.
Wish I could help with sourcing a knob, Good luck!

 

O/D off is 3 and O/D on is 4. Those terms are gone with the dodo now. You're just gonna waste fuel and have higher temps. I would resolve it sooner than later. Stay below 55mph for sure.

 

Not sure if your system has changed since 2000.

In mine when the OD switch is on the switch contacts are open allowing the transmission to shift to OD

When the switch is off the contacts are closed turning the light off and not allowing it to shift to OD

From what your saying things must have changed because if the circuit was open the OD would be on.

It was a try

 

Couldn't you just tie the wires together? Wouldn't that just act like you pressed the button in?

If there are really only 2 wires, all the switch does is connect those wires.

 

I feel like this might be one of the few legitimate automotive applications for a wire nut.

 

At least to test it out as a temp fix.

 

That's how it starts anyway. 12 months later you wonder why they bothered with a button in the first place.

 

The o/d bottom is a toggle switch which means by just touching the two blue wires changes to the on/off position. What I did was touch the two wires so that the o/d light is not illuminated and covered them up with electrical tape.