TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Oct 29, 2002 7:52 pm

Ok, my tranny is at the rebuilder's shop right now, and i need to decide . So for those of you that are running freeway gearing in your transmission, what 4th gear are you running? What about ring and pinion? Are you still running redux. boxes? What motor are you using to push that transmission along the highway? Are you happy with the setup? Thanks in advance.

Andrew
'58 Panel Bus
'60 European Beetle
'67 Deluxe Bus

Wed Oct 30, 2002 8:06 am

Andrew,

I just had my tranny rebuilt by Rancho Performance in Anaheim, CA and went with the same setup that my mechanic has on his '63 panel. My bus is a '63 deluxe with a '67 tranny and axles. Rancho put in a 3:88 ring and pinion with the fourth gear changed from .88 to .82 for even better highway speeds. I'm running a 1776 with dual Kadron's and a doghouse cooler. Still working on the brake lines and some electrical before getting it on the road, so I can't give you a performance report except that I drove my mechanic's (which has the same setup) and it was a major improvement over my (then current) setup, even with the big nut '67 tranny and transaxles.

Scott

Wed Oct 30, 2002 10:11 pm

.82 fourth with 388 ring and pinion. in my 59 runs real nice. my stock trany would barely run 50 full throttle. big difference.

Wed Nov 06, 2002 1:33 am

Andrew,
I redone my '67 trans with a 3:88 ring & pinion and an .077 4th gear from Rancho. My bus runs 75 mph at 3700 rpms with this set up. I lost pulling power in 4th gear bus I sure can keep up with the traffic now. Scotts set up mentioned above with the .082 might be better than the .077 as far as better pulling power in 4th. The next one I build I will try the .082.
Scott,
Please let me know how your bus pulls in 4th gear with the .082. I'm curious if it's a better gear. Rancho sent me the .077 so I used it and love the all out speed on the highway but feel that I need more pull in 4th around town. Thanks.

Wed Nov 06, 2002 7:51 am

Marine Tiger,

Just sent you a response on your email. Are you in the Corps right now? If so, where are you stationed? I'll post my report on the pulling power of my new 4th gear and ring and pinion as soon as I get it on the road.

Scott

Wed Nov 06, 2002 9:09 am

If your tranny is stock (and I mean an original BUS tranny), a .82 4th is stock. The advertising you see where they talk about "adding" a .82 4th gear is really aimed at the bug crowd (since they are stuck with a .89 4th stock) The .77 is a late Bay Bus 4th. The "flier" part of the FF tranny, in a bus, is really with the choice of R&P and r-box gearing. Early trannies had 4.37 R&P w/ 1.37:1 r-boxs. Change out the R&P to either a 4.12 or 3.88 and you'll move faster for a given RPM. Also swap out the early r-boxes for the later 1.25:1 boxes and you move even faster for a given RPM.

Personally, I'm running a 3.88 R&P flier with the stock .82 4th w/ 1.25:1 boxes and love it. I cruise 3400 RPMs @ about 63-65 mph (that's the sweet spot for my motor's power vs. wind resistance). With keeping the .82 4th, I have the stock spacing between gears which makes it easier to drive IMHO. I've driven a bus with the stock 1-3 gears w/ a .77 4th, and to me 4th was quite a reach from 3rd.

I've got gearing formulas in the "Tech Tables" page of my tech site. I would recommend sitting down and running the numbers before ordering a tranny. That is a $400+ decision you will have to live with for a long time. Plus it's just a PITA to swap out; NOT something you want to re-do in a few months cause you don't like the result. Make an informed choice. Good luck!

Nate
http://www.nateswaterart.com