Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Overdrive going on/off randomly then car dies

98 ATX zetec has been randomly having the o/d shotoff. first you should know i bought the car with a broken shifter where i could not shut the OD off as the entire shifter can pull right out. been fine for 3 yrs.

so today driving on highway at 80 mph when it goes off again.
get off highway a few minutes later, going down a hill i lose all acceleration power and at stop sign car dies. could not get to turn over again at all.
tow driver thought it was the timing belt.

sounds electrical to me

anyone have any insight?

thanks in advance

My guess is that the engine problem is unrelated to the O/D problem.

You can check the timing belt easily by removing the two bolts on the upper timing belt cover to the passenger side of the valve cover. I am thinking of a '95 so your '98 may look a bit different I suppose, but it shouldn't be too hard to get to and when you pull that cover off you are looking at the timing belt (or where it's supposed to be) and you should be able to judge whether it is intact or not.