Gear Vendors or swap for performance 5 spd OD?
AJ/FormS, said they had to cut into the hump and reaarange the exhaust.
Not quite right.
When I got mine, GV only had the long-tail,B/E adapter. To use it, I had to shave a couple of the mounting bosses off the front shifterpad, to clear the tunnel. After that I mounted the unit and jacked it up into the tunnel to see where it touched, marked it well, and took the unit back down.
Then out game the BFG, and I took care of business.
So next, I had to drop the rear mount a tad. I am using the Spool mount, so this was just a matter of elongating the holes for the thru bolt.
Then I had to cut the X-over out, patch the pipes,shorten the driveshaft, and fabricate a new shifter adapter.
But I gotta tellya, cutting that x-over out, changed the low-rpm torque big-time; I wouldna believed it. I spent the rest of that summer hunting for it, but never got much back. In the end I called Passon, and Jamie hooked me up with the Commando guts, a HD longshaft, and one of his aluminum boxes. That new 3.09low is a 16% increase in TM, over the old 2.66; and that did it, in spades.
Now I gotta tellya another thing;
The new 1-2 split is big enough to split nicely.
The ratios are 3.09-1.92-1.40-1.00..
I run 3.55s, so out the back, so the ratios are 10.97-6.82-4.97-3.55
The GV is a .78 splitter, so adding it in, I get;
10.97-
8.56-6.82-
5.32-*** (GV in red), with splits of .78-.80-.78 Shazzam!
Those are some really tight splits. Tighter even the the T/A 2.47 low box.
Those 4 ratios get me to 93 in the 1/8 at 6150rpm@3467 pounds/900ft.
That's one pull on the big stick, and in-out-in on the button.
My engine is nothing real fancy, (see my sig below), with a 230*.050 cam.
The Wallace calculator makes 93mph to be 433 hp. Yeah right.
My power peak is around 5300 with that cam, and the outshift should probably be around 5600.
With an average .78 split, the Rs would drop to 4370 for a powerband requirement of 1230rpm.
In comparison, the 2.66 box will drop 1510; Is 280rpm a big deal; IDK.
Two of those shifts are powershifted just like an automatic.I think that is a bigger deal. And of course my box is slick-shifted in both second and third, so good luck finding a break in the blackies.
The hard part is outshifting the GV, while simultaneously grabbing second. The GV is not supposed to be under load when coming out, and it has a ever so slight hesitation from the time you push the button until something happens at the GV clutch. The hesitation varies with driveshaft rpm. So yeah, it's tricky, and I don't think a guy could ever be consistent with it, but it sure was fun.
I love this combo for it's versatility. It is way better than when I was splitting the A833od box. I thought I was pretty smart when I put that together. I drove it for two or three years, trying every rear gear in my arsenal from 2.76s to 5.38s with a couple of holes in the line up, but I could not cover all the bases all of the time. Plus I kept breaking that fragile mainshaft od gear. In the end I pulled it outta there for the Commando set-up I have now. Yeah I slick-shifted second in that box too,lol.
The problem with that A833od box,
IMO
is not the wide splits per se, but that to get second gear where i wanted it to be, first was too deep or not deep enough.
I was trying to run outta rpm at 60mph.
With a 5500 rpm shift and 27inch tires, this takes an overall gear of 7.37.
So the rear gear requirements are;
in first over it is 3.06; In second it is 4.41; In second over it is 5.66
So 4.41s rounds to 4.30s and I installed those.
Now, tooling around, 30mph is ;
2676 in 1.67 second gear, and downshifting gets me 4950 in 3.09low.
And therein lies the problem.
At 2676 that 367 of mine is not particularly lively, and 4950 is is just 450 rpm to the shift. So that just never worked for me. I pulled and sold the 4.30s.
the Commando in comparison;
With 3.23s, I hit 60 in first-over at 5800, and
30 is 2310 in 1.92 second, and downshifting gets me 3710 in 3.09low, just around the torque peak. Very nice.
The starter gear is now , a sane 9.98, compared to the od box of 13.29.
And 65 is now 2240 with the Commando/GVod, compared to
1980 with the od/od combo,which was too low for my 230* cam.
In the end I installed 3.55s, for that magic 93mph run. They have stayed in there ever since.
