Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:02:47 -0500
Reply-To: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Max Wellhouse <maxjoyce@IPA.NET>
Subject: Re: .70 4th gear?
In-Reply-To: <f58a847c6b35.4499303c@gci.net>
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I have a stock 90 GL with Agilis tires, and Weddle Engineering did my
tranny. I opted for going to a 4.57 ring and pinion and adding the .77 4th
gear. Chris said going any lower on 4th I WOULD need a taller 3rd gear. I
chose not to go lower and maybe should've spent the extra $225 and done
so. The 4.57/.77 combo yields a 3400 rpm cruising speed at 70mph(verified
by GPS unit). The trouble with stock 3rd and .77 fourth is a 1400 rpm drop
in engine speed and that can pose problems on hills. 5000 rpm in 3rd gear
is a little over 60 MPH, so a taller 3rd gear would allow you to downshift
into third and pass slow pokes on 55MPH two lane roads. Even if you keep
everything stock and only change the ring and pinion(Weddle had a used one
that saved quite a lot of mney) that would help a lot. A 4.57 with taller
3rd and .70 fourth would require more power/torque than a stock vanagon
would muster, especially with a Westy and that extra weight. I like the
vanagon not "coming out of the hole" quite so fast. I didn't know about
Daryl C when I did my tranny some years ago. Both are great tranny
guys. One's in CA and the other's in WA.
Hope that helps some
DM&FS
At 02:40 PM 6/21/2006, Mark Tuovinen wrote:
>Rob,
>
>The correct choice for you depends on a number of variables. What engine,
>tire size, and vehicle you drive, as well as the topography in your area
>should be considered. Our van is an `87 Westy Syncro running a stock 2.1L
>and 185R14 Nokians, when Daryl at AATransaxle built our transmission we
>discussed all of these items and opted for swapping both 3rd and 4th gears
>and I love it. If I were running larger tires I would not have chosen
>this route as it is mountainous here and larger tires coupled with a
>higher gear set would have made our van too slow(lol) in the Passes. With
>the higher gears we have reduced our cruising rpm's down to about 3500
>from 4000.
>
>Mark in AK
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Rob Infante <RobInfante@AOL.COM>
>Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 8:47 am
>Subject: .70 4th gear?
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> > Does anyone have a .70 4th gear? I'm getting my tranny redone,
> > but these
> > are on backorder for a while.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Rob Infante
> >
>
>
>
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