gear ratios and torque

Even still, it's a curve. To say you have an increase or decrease requires a fixed data point. For this example, you'd need "at what RPM" do we have X amount of torque with one gear versus X amount of torque with another gear at the same RPM. That's why I said what I did. You simply move the torque curve up or down in the RPM range depending on gear set. You cannot just look at the whole picture and say "this gear makes less torque than that one". That's incorrect and is the point I was trying to make. But my ego got in the way. Damn that thing.

As Rusty noted, much more about the whole combination. Torque output of the engine over the rpm range having to be matched with gearing and the converter, part of the whole being only as good as the sum of the combination of the parts.
ok f