Topic: gearing question

[JeepGuyBill]

k, i'm in the process of going full width d60's with 38-39's.
my question is would you guys run 5.89 gears, or 6.17 gears?
i'll also be throwing on the 4.0 throttle body(if it's worth it) and maybe a weighted flywheel.
i dunno if i've ever posted pictures on here, so i'll throw a couple semi-recent ones up





my brother's new tj (he cheated though and bought it like that)


my winch that i will hopefully put on this week if my winch plate ever comes in

[j33p3r]

kamikaze124 has a similar setup and runs 513's.  Its the first post under the poseur central threads.

[Bounty Hunter]

If you have the AX5 and 38" tires, the 5.89 will give you a 63:1 crawl ratio and the 6.17 will give a 67:1 crawl ratio.  Stock is about 44:1.

4th gear on the highway (1:1), 3000rpms, will be about 55mph with the 6.17 and about 58mph with the 5.89.  Choice is yours, but not much difference.

[Dan]

This is a handy website I've used may times over the years: http://www.4lo.com/. The calculators on the left of the page will help with gearing and other equations. The general rule is try to get a crawl ratio of 100:1, depending on what type of wheeling you do. Judging from your flexing that rule applies to you!

[neale_rs]

For a mod this serious about off-road as opposed to on-road performance, it seems the 6.17 would be the better choice.  The 4 banger needs all the gearing advantage it can get.

[Jeffy]

For a mod this serious about off-road as opposed to on-road performance, it seems the 6.17 would be the better choice.  The 4 banger needs all the gearing advantage it can get.

Except even if he was going to run D60's, 6.17's would make the pinion awfully small.  Most people don't go lower the 5.89 with the 60's.  Want a HP 60 and you're stuck with 5.13's being the limit.

If this is in fact for offroad only, foorget about going that low and get a transfer case with ultra low gears.  The Atlas 4-speed is what I'd be looking at getting.  You'll easily be able to get into the 200:1 range without having to worry about small pinion gears.

If I was going to go bit and bad, I'd honestly look at some Volvo 304 axles.  6:1 with portals and they are lighter then the D60.  Stock air lockers as well.  They go for $15-2000 a pair.  You'd want to go back to the stock height suspension as well.  It would be exotic as well.  All your friends would be envious.

[JeepGuyBill]

ok, well, this is for a street driven vehicle.  my plan was for an hp60 front...did not realize they had such gearing limitations...are you sure the steepest gears you can get for it are 5.13?

in time, i will be getting an atlas, but that will surely take anotehr year atleast...this project is already going to cost me a few grand when all said and done...this jeep will eventually see an engine swap to eitehr a 4.7 stroker, or a 350, haven't decided eyt, doens't really matter yet.  my hopes were to avoid the big money atlas until i'm ready to start stcking my engine swap parts.

if the hp60 is really that limited, i will just get the standard d60 front,  i think it will be fine, does it hang that much lower then the hp?  i hate the idea of not using the hp, but i'm not gonna run around with 38's on a 4banger with 5.13's and no tcase reduction...at the same time...i'm not gonna run around with 35's or 36's with dana 60's ancoring me on everything...choices choices.

those portal axles actually sound like a decent idea. i can't scroll up and check what you said now...but i think you said something about not using them on the street? any reason for this?  and also, where would i find a set if, by chance, i was interrested?  see, coming by axle is not easy over here in NY, i found a local guy who has all types of d60's though so i'm sure i'm still gonna go that route and use low pinion.

as for ring and pinion strength, i don't think it will be all that bad...as some axles, like the portals, only come with 6.10 or 7.10 gears, and they do fine and usually are used for application hauling heavy weight.  so i don't think 6.17 should be all that bad...especially if i keep the u-joints stock...as they should break before the R&P i would imagine.

ok, i'm done, whatcha think?

[Jeffy]

I'm fairly sure the HP60's are limited to 5.13's.  Unless you really want HP axles, I'd consider a D60 front and 14bolt rear.  14bolts are dime a dozen and fairly cheap.

You can't really compare D60 gearing with other axles.  Different axles will have different cut offs where the pinion gets significantly smaller.  Portals are completely different since the housings only have 3.x:1 in the housings.  The rest of the multiplication is done at the portals.  If you want portals there are only two companies that import Volvo parts into te US.  Otherwise you can check out the Pirate4x4.com forums for axles.  Portals come up once in a while.  There is no reason you can't drive them on the street  although, with an engine swap, you will have really LOW gears for onroad.  You'll defiantly want a transmission with an OD.

[jagular7]

If you go with a low pinion D60, its actually not that low compared to other axles like the 9". Also, the snout is much longer so that will bring the yoke/ds up out of the way. Just not as much compared to that of a D60R.

Consider using a right hand drop D60, then you can go with a right side drop tcase, ie D300. D300 should bolt right in the back of your current trans (23-spline) and you can get a clocking ring to raise it to go flat belly. A 4:1 is available. Then dual stick it for better control of the axles separately. If you go with a left hand drop D60, you can use your current tcase, although its limited to what you can do with a single stick. A 4:1 kit is available if you wanted to add it.
Do you prefer a D60 that has unitized hubs? This eliminates the large hub and lockout that protrubes through the wheel. Take a look at 94 and up Dodges. They will be coiled and linked.