Unless it is flat with a good tail wind, I have no 5th

Going up any type of grade I have to floor it, anything remotely mild and I actually lose rpms, and this is Wot, and you can hear my valvetrain lugging out its annoying and I know it damaging the motor, with all my power mods it got a little better but up here in pa everything is hilly and shifting every 1-2 miles it's annoying so ill keep it in 4th and be going 60 at 2100rpm

I have
Cai ( home brew)
703's
99+ intake
Headers and full exhaust ( glass pack)
Full Accel ignition set ( minus wire usuing oem but new )
New fuel sytem front to back,
And a tip top motor, well tip top for 200k


5th sucks haha

 

When I go out to my sisters all highway. If I go to 5th gear there has to be no wind and also going down hill to stay up to speed. The speed limit is 75 heading out there. But as soon as I go up a little hill need to go back to 4th. It's like a auto with 33 and 3.55 gears it sucks keeping consistent speed for them since it's always changing gears. For the 5 speed we just keep it in whatever gear we want. When city driving I'll stay in 3rd gear til about 40-45 then go to 4th.

 

see i understand what yall are saying, but my jeep drives the same way. 5th is dead if its up hill but small slopes it can help

 

5th is to tall for the jeep I would need 410s to make it work, but if I go to low ill still inly be able to use 4th because, I wont be in the sweet spot ( 2000rpm to 2100)

 

Besides better gearing for wheeling and using 4hi instead of 4lo. It all comes down to if want to use that 5th gear or not. Rpms we control when to shift. Even with different gears rpms are essentially the same for shifting points

 

I was thinking 3.55's when I go to 33's as well, but now after a little more thought I think 3.73's would be just about perfect for on road. You need to account for the extra rolling mass of the tires as well. 3.55 might be dead stock in the RPM but with the extra tire weight you will still notice some power loss. I'm also upgrading brakes with drilled and slotted rotors at the same time. Just my 2 cents.

 

Dude, no; that makes no sense. You're quoting what the auto guys do, it's literately that different. 3.73 and 33's is shorter than stock and would surely bring 5 th back into commission for road use.


3.55 with 33's is still under stock so I would enough those 3.73s first anyways but you bring up an important point to consider, the bigger the tire, the
Heavier.

 

I agree. If you can get the 3.73's without actually gearing the axles i would get them. However if you are gearing them go with 4.10's, i'd put 4.88 in mine even if i had a 4.0 just because i wouldnt want to do it more than once.

 

Seeing that 3.55 auto axles are cheap and easy to come by, i would get them. I had an auto and now a 5 speed. I drove the 5 speed with the 3.07 and the 3.55. Definitely an improvement and highly recommended. Especially since some of us on the forum aren't made of money, the stock auto axles will be dead on for 32. It's the closest you can get to stock gearing for that size tire. I do about 2k rpm at 70-75mph. Fuel economy anyone?

 

3.73 came stock in some jeeps with the towing package. And they're alot easier to find than 4.10's, price should be the same.

 

I was referring to the people saying 4.56 or 4.88. It costs major $$$ to regear. 3.73 would be a slight upgrade. They are rare in my part of town however.

 

oh yes i completely agree with you there. I wouldnt recommend anything over 4.10 for 32's on a DD.

 

To put things in perspective, with 32's, and 3.55, First gear is like a 10-15mph ordeal. I can only imagine if it was geared lower. Just start out in 2nd lol

 

I agree 355 would be a dead stock ratio, 373 would be easier on my motor and mpg, ill be re gearing anything I get when I get lockers

 

I have a 96 AX15 with 31" tires. I started out with the stock gears, it wasn't too bad but highway driving sucked (5th gear was mostly useless). I swapped out for an 8.25 out of a 2000 auto which had the 3.55 gears, and that helped some. I cruised around without the front DS for a while, had a little more legs on the highway but not much out of the hole while daily driving it. I was looking at 3.73s, but for some reason all the gearsets I found were twice as much as 4.10s from the same manufacturer (Motive).
I regeared both axles to 4.10s, am still rocking the 31" tires, and I love it. The truck has ***** off the line, if I rip on it like I'm driving something that is fast I can darn near pull the front tires off the pavement when I grab second, and 5th gear can actually accelerate on the highway. Haven't recalibrated my speedo yet, but I cruise at 80 on my speedo, which is about 65-70 really, and am around 2300-2500 RPM. Fuel mileage for mixed driving has dipped from 17-18 down to what I estimate to be 14-15. My plans include 33" tires once these are worn out, so the 4.10s should still be very viable. Just my 2 cents since I've actually done these setups and have the AX 15.