Gears: Whats the deal?

[PANDA]

After driving Tommy's Bonneville down the track Saturday I was ******d on how well it pulled and how much better it felt than my car. Even though our cars are a good match-up most of the time his felt ALOT better. It pulled hard constantly. He was saying it might be the 3.29's he has. I currently have a bone stock trans with 2.93's. It shows so real signs of breaking anytime soon, although it does shift inconsistent sometimes. I don't really want to put a trans in this car because that's alot of money and its a Grand Prix.

Anyway. Are gears something a trans shop can install without major issue? OR are they something that would require the trans be removed and everything else replaced while its opened up. Like a rebuild.

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[Bob Kazamakis]

Found this by trannyman. Sounds like a pain in the ass in car:

I do have a writeup on a gear swap but it is pics on the bench and not in the car though it can be done. It is quite a chore to do in the car especially if you have never been inside one of these transmissions. I have found it easiest to jack up the left side of the car pretty high and leave the drivers side on the ground and then you have to have a jack under the trans or an engine support cradle from the top to lower and raise the trans but you have to unbolt the steering rack and cradle and drop down the trans to remove the side cover and then you will have access to the internals. I prefer leaving the passanger side on the ground and jacking up the drivers side to help keep all the parts from falling out as when you lower the trans the engine will still be on its mount and it will drop at an angle so it helps to offset this angle by jacking it up this way.

 

[10sec]

Phatride can do it with the trans in the car FYI, and you can get a little insurance running a 7/8" single chain 3.29 gear set. However, I would have him pull the trans and stick an input shaft in there as well. Then all you have to do is wait for the stock soft parts to die since the parts more prone to breaking will be dealt with already. He can also do a refresh on the clutches for a lot less than a full trans rebuild will cost. He's doing my trans as soon as it needs it, just sayin. The 3.29's will keep your car in it's junk power band as opposed to the 2.93's. You can really take advantage of 2.93's if you're shifting at 6500rpm, however on stock springs there's not a chance in hell you'll be able to accomplish that. Those stock springs are you going to be a bottleneck sooner than later.

 

[Ron Vogel]

yeah for best performance SC; use 3.29's, turbo; 2.93

If you want the most out of 3.29's, it's a good idea to retard the cam timing by 2 degrees (just slap a stock L36 TC set on there).

 

[10sec]

I disagree with 2.93's on turbo setups, that's too much gear. 2.93's on a supercharged setup that can rev to the moon like i mentioned before is perfect. Turbo's are laggy off the line, giving it a longer gear will force you to run a higher stall, higher stall means less top end thus eliminating the point of the 2.93's. 3.29's on pretty much all turbo w-body's minus like 4 of them, are perfect. Actually 3.29's all around for a wbody that's not consistently running 9sec 1/4miles are perfect gears.

 

[phat_ridegt]

fwiw i run a 3500 stall and 3.29's....

only trapping 120, im perfectly in the powerband.....i believe its around 5800ish in 3rd at the lights... i shift around 6500...so even when i turn the boost up, it should be around 6200ish, and trap around 125~

but yah panda you can change the gears/chain in the car, but like mike said if you are going to pull the trans, you might as well put an input shaft and i would just do a pump shaft and 4th clutch hub while you are in there...only a few hundo more....