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gearing/diff ratio swap stuff

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:00 pm
by waandy
at the moment im running 31s with stock gearing and i burn the clutch under extremely bogged conditions. my issue is the set of 33 silverstone extremes crying out to be tested. i no they arnt quite a 33 but i really want to get the car running them right before i put them on.
i doubt any diff gear swap would be suitable.
i also seem to hear calmini would be the way to go. but it is costly
rockhopper seem to break more than the calmini to.
i dnt want ta spend lotsa doe but i mite have to.

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:45 pm
by want33s
:roll: Is there a question hidden in there somewhere? :?

Jas.

Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:30 pm
by jimbo jones
try this its what I have 6.5:1 transfer gears


http://www.lowrangeoffroad.com/samtcase.htm

if you checked the bible you would have found it :roll:

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:45 am
by 86slowsierra
try getting the 5.12 diff gears. this will fix your gearing problems. They come out early 1.6 vitara manuals. the last time i replaced a set it cost me $250 each. someone mentioned that you can only use the fronts, not sure why but thats all i use.
just take it to a diff shop and ask them to swap the vit ring and pinion onto your diff center.

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 3:47 pm
by waandy
86slowsierra wrote:try getting the 5.12 diff gears. this will fix your gearing problems. They come out early 1.6 vitara manuals. the last time i replaced a set it cost me $250 each. someone mentioned that you can only use the fronts, not sure why but thats all i use.
just take it to a diff shop and ask them to swap the vit ring and pinion onto your diff center.
ok this sounds good. was it 250 per end for different ratios and installation? or just installation?
cheers

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:46 pm
by v840
Stop farking around and get tcase gears from lowrange or locktup. End of problem. Its money that should really be factored in to any zook build from the get go.


If you still feel you need more gearing after you have put in the case gears, then look at diff gears, but IMO tcase should come first.
YMMV. :D

Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:27 pm
by GRPABT1
IMO transfer gears are invaluable offroad when in low but diff gears would suffice if it's a mall cruiser. I second going with locktup they'll look after you, I got my trail gear 6.5's set from them.

Oh and do a bloody search for christs sake!

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:27 am
by Gwagensteve
v840 wrote:Stop farking around and get tcase gears from lowrange or locktup. End of problem. Its money that should really be factored in to any zook build from the get go.


If you still feel you need more gearing after you have put in the case gears, then look at diff gears, but IMO tcase should come first.
YMMV. :D
X heaps.

$500 for two sets of diff gears seems great, until you add 2X diff rebuilds ($250 each, indicative) then your diff guy tells you that one of the gearsets has corrosion on it because it was in a car that never went into 4WD and you hvae to find another one.... then you put solid spacers on the pinions to stop them collapsing and flogging out etc etc - next thing you know, you have well, well over $1K in the job.

I've seen diff gears destroyed through bad setup (even by workshops). Gears need to be setup by a professional shop with a good reputation for diff work. Getting it a little it wrong will result in short gear life, as a result there's more $$ in the labour to fit diff gears than in the gears themselves, especially if the workshop fits them on a drive in/drive out basis.

Yes, the 5.12's will gear your car back to stock with 33's on it. However, the added traction of the 33's will mean that stock gearing isn't adequate for 33's generally off road, let alone in steep country. Crawl ratio goes to about 41:1, up from about 30:1. I don't think sierras are nicely drivable with over 31's on them until crawl gets above 60:1.

Mines at 125:1, which is silly, and I don't need first very often, but it is great to drive in technical terrain., and is still great in mud - my 1st high is the same as a stock sierra's 1st low, so I use 1st high in mud or 4th low. (33:1)

I have 5.12 diff gears and a Trail Tough 6:1 gearset, mostly because I'm running tyres of 34"+ and have a motor that needs to rev on the highway to work. If I had a 1.6 or something I don't think I could see any resaon to go into the diffs to correct the gearing - the transfer gears would be enough.

I couldn't recommend Rockhopper gears from what I've seen, I do understand they are much better than they were, but I've seen too many failures, seen too many warranty hassles, and they've been too inconsistent (noisy etc)

I've not seen a set of US supplied gears break, and it's been a while sonce I've seen Rockhopper gears break, but that might be because most of us are using Us supplied gears now.

Look though the % correction high range numbers - I went with TT gears as I knew I was going to run diff gears so I wanted the smallest high range reduction I could get (16% from memory) but if you knew you weren't going to go into the diffs you might want to look for more high range reduction.

As an aside, Everyone I know who has had 4:1 transfer gears has either gone to 6:1 or wishes they had. Once you get a taste for the control they give you, you want more.

That's my take on it.

Steve.

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:27 pm
by 86slowsierra
its 250 each diff center roughly and it sholud be about 250 each to swap the gears over if you dont have any skilled or nice friends.
so about $1000 fitted depending on what you get.
calmini 6-1 kit is roughly $1200 for the kit.

same same.

+ whatever steve just said

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:02 pm
by greg
i think the only time that a diff ratio swap is going to be more cost effective than a transfer case swap would be if you fit them at the same time as a locker. that would negate the installation cost and you end up back at the parts cost only :cool:

that said - you might end up messing up your overall ratio etc...

oh well.

normal rule applies... step 1 - buy your tyres... yada yada yada... step 237 drive the car.... step 250 cut back off car.... step 300 sell car for parts.