2.66 low gear vs close ratio

rmchrgr

Gears is gears.
If you are starting in 2nd now,the o/d box will be very nearly exactly the same pos. The idea of putting more gear in the back will help with first gear for sure. But absolutely nothing will help the splits. And if you try to put any torque into the O/D 4th, with that 400, it will rip all the teeth off that gear.On their way to the bottom of the case, there's no predicting what other damage those pieces will do.

I've shredded two of those; one with my 360, and one with my 4bbl teener winter motor. It's very easy to forget about that poor gear when banging through.One was a .71ratio and the other was a .73ratio. Buying swap meet trannys, I always kept one for a spare on the premise that I would someday again forget.

I did buy a GearVendor unit and hung it back there. I used it for a gear splitter. That was pretty cool at the dragstrip.........
the A833ratios are ..................3.09-1.67-1.00-.73, and splits are 54%-60%-73%
With the GV............3.09-2.41-1.67-1.30-1.00-.78-.57 splits are .78-.69-.78-.77-.78-.73

With a .57double O/D you can run any rear you want. So I chose a 4.88 for the 1/8th mile.This put me at 93mph at 7100 in second over. Catch that! Just one stick shift, and two electric,faster than fast, shifts. With tirespin, the tach more or less got "stuck" at 7000 for pretty much all of the run. On the way home 4.88 x .57 = 2.78 cruise gear was good for 2250 at 65mph..
'Course around town, 4.88 x 3.09 = 15.08 is the absolute worst first gear you could imagine.(Well except for 6.68 x 3.23 =21.58 ). And second 4.88 x 1.67 = 8.15 is almost as sucky,(as goldduster with an 8.59starter is contending with). I ran 4.3s for a while that summer, cuz I thought I would 1320 it. But it soon became apparent that 93 in the eighth was plenty fast enough for me. So since I now knew what starter ratios sucked (the 15.08 and,4.30 x 3.09 =13.29, and the aforementioned 8.15), I went for something in between; say 11/1. That meant 3.55s. These give a very nice 10.97 starter gear. And a fabulous 2.02 cruiser gear, giving 1631@65mph.
There was a problem tho. I got real tired of gear-splitting around town, but I was married to it. The engine was very unhappy pulling those huge splits without the splitter. About that time my little 223* cam dropped 2 lobes, and in my infinite wisdom I replaced it with a 230*cam, which really didn't like the 2.02 O/D, nor the factory splits.
So I went into research mode. I knew I wanted to keep the 11/1 starter gear, and by a little testing I determined that my new cam was happy at about 2200@65. So it just so happened,I discovered, that Mopar, back in the early 60s made a 3.09low gear in the standard 2.66 flavor.
My new ratios were 3.09-1.92-1.40-1.0-.78GV.the splits are .62-.73-.71-.78 Good enough I thought, I have a 5spd. Perfect actually; I got to keep the 11/1 starter. I got 2236 at 65mph for cruising. AND I can still split gears when it's hammer time. Splitting the first two gears,the split ratios are 3.09-2.41-1.92-1.50, and splits .78-.80-.78 this gets me 109@7200 in second-over. That's just about 1500 rpm drops between gears! You cannot imagine my glee. In practice, I might shift at 6500, so the drops would be 1365. I say would cuz on the street, even with 295s. the tach just pegs at redline 'til about 80mph, as it spins it's way to the top, killing the clutch damper springs, and melting the tires..
I cannot relate to you how addictive this is.The sound coming out those dual 3 inch turn downs, when the engine is screaming 6800 for 5 or 6 seconds is ..................no words .And the pow,pow,pow of the shifts.....no words.And the insane laughter from my lips, and the screaming/crying passenger.....no words
Sorry OP I got sidetracked again...........

You will have to pry this combo out of my cold dead fingers!