Have any of you guys swapped out your rear gears for a higher one on your own? Im interested in how to do it. I have a 7.5 in my Bu. I dont plan on racing it or hitting the strip. Just a mild street car, so I dont see a reason to throw away the "weak" 7.5. Im thinking of something between 3:41 and 3:73. I dont want to take it to a shop because I want to be able to back my own work up and learn more at the same time.
Maybe get a manual or a company that sells the gears. I read about too many failures where people did not have proper tools such a pinion depth guage and or did and still ended up with something that wined etc. Without doing it right its a roll of the dice it might wear right or it might not. I did buy a whole drum to drum rear from a MCSS 3.73s for less than I could buy new gears. This way I could do it myself with common tools and no risk. Hey have you ever made a pass with that yellow 496ci MCSS? If so what mph did she run?
No. Sadly enough I havent let her loose at the strip yet. I go to PBIR a lot and there are lots of impressive G Body's here. Im shooting to get my roll cage put in at least by April, then Im hoping I can pull MID 10's or Low 11's all motor.
My motor's backed by a built 400 done here by Harpers and theyre an all G Body shop. All Regals and GN's. I havent put any slicks or SR's on it yet but its notched and probably could fit a reasonably big tire back there considering the offset of my current rims.
dumb question time, if it's an SS .... are you sure you don't already have 3.42:1 or 3:73:1 gears? As I recall 3.42 was standard and 3:73 was optional.
Of course the SS has 3:73's in it but Im inquiring about my Bu. It has a stock rear-end and Im using this car as a learning tool since I paid everyone else to do the work on the Monte.
Unless you have the books and tools I would advise against playing with the rear gears. Every gear set is different and it's too easy to mess up. A whole rear is cheaper and easier to swap in. That said, Speedway and others sell a cheap pinion depth tool as well as dial indicators that you can use to set up a rear. An installation kit consisting of shims and small parts can be had for under $50. I have the GM Kent-Moore ring and pinion installation tool kit as well as many GM factory manuals and still it's a time-consuming process to set up a rear to GM specs. I would also advise getting a real GM factory manual and reading up on the rear end gear section and see if it doesn't give you a headache. If it doesn't, then get a sacraficial rear to open up and take a good look at what's inside so the manual will make sense. Then consider buying the proper tools and have at it. I'm an idiot and I can do it, but I have the tools. :wink:
Good post Bonnewagon. Like he said a whole rear is cheaper and easier to swap in. You would probably only get 13s with a really high mph with the tires that you have on it in the pic. Bet they are like grease on street. With notched frame rails you can run 295/65/15 drag radials. Its what I was going to run on my 509ci 442 when I needed decent safe traction on the street. Since that is a 29" tire you need at least a 27" tire up front to make it look right though. Maybe a 225/70/15. I assume this would not make the look you want but as I said maybe only when you want decent safe traction on the street. Get whipped by much slower cars would suck.
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