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The Z32 came with both 5 Speed Manual and 4 Speed/Two Stages Automatic tranny as you should know by now. The manual is simple, you shift up and down as you want, end of story, is better for full control of the car, no doubt. The automatic tranny is very different, many people believe the O/D is 4th gear, but it is actually more than that. 1st gear and 2nd gear are full hydromatic, meaning, they shift using the oil pressure inside the tranny, and they are only assited by electronic devices to make the shifting smoth and nice, and on time depending of the driving situation. Then, 3rd work about the same, but it need the ECU to be able to work, if the tranny ECU dies, you won't shift into 3rd or O/D at all. 1st and 2nd are low gears, for each time the engine crank spins one time, your wheels actually turn less that one time.
When you are in Drive or 3rd gear, both your engine and your wheels spin at the same time, one crank spin is equal to one wheel spin. The O/D (Over Drive) is a 4th gear, meaning, for each time your crank turns, your wheels actually turn more than one time. This gear has no power at all, and is use to lower the RPM of your engine when you are cruising on the highway, or in the streets. In the Z32, O/D has two stages, you can see them as 4th and somehow 5th gear, but more as 4th and 4 1/2 gear. What happens is that after crusing for a couple of second in steady speed with no load (no going up hill, or no acceleration), the gear shifts into another one, even better, and you can notice it on the RPM, they drop about 400 RPM when "5th" gear is activated. O/D is fully electronically controlled, the ECU tells when and how it get activated. The button in the shifter is just the switch to turn this feature On or OFF. If is ON, the ECU will use it, if is OFF, you will only shift into 1st, 2nd and 3rd, end of story. When to use O/D? Whenever you are cruising. When not to use it? Whenever you want to race, or to drive in 3rd and keep it in 3rd, no shifting into O/D, or in rush hour when heavy traffic, to avoid the tranny to shift like crazy up and down every 2 seconds (sometimes selecting 2nd gear in the shifter makes heavy traffic easier to deal with). Hope this helps...
Thanks
Danny www.geocities.com/miamizcarclub 
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03:00:08 05/19/03
