Ford Mechanic? Specifically rear end gears

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

I'm looking into maybe swapping out the gears in my Mustang and was wondering if anyone could recommend a shop to do it. Pretty sure it's the same 8.8" rear end Ford has been using for decades as the gears I'm looking at say they are for '86-'11 V8 Mustangs. So does anyone know a local shop that has a lot of experience with Ford rear ends that would install gears for a fair price and do a trustworthy job?

kingtut · Postby **kingtut** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

A guy at my work restores older ones. I could ask him...

ecam8000 · Postby **ecam8000** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

You can try the Drive Train Industries/Mobile Equipment Repair off I-25 and Garden or the Gods @ 719-260-7992. Tell them you are friends with Eric out of the Denver branch (truck shop).

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

ecam8000 wrote:You can try the Drive Train Industries/Mobile Equipment Repair off I-25 and Garden or the Gods @ 719-260-7992. Tell them you are friends with Eric out of the Denver branch (truck shop).

That is the place I always went to in Grand Juntion.

tsx_guy · Postby **tsx_guy** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

RX-7 Chris wrote:That is the place I always went to in Grand Juntion.

i thought you were going to say gears were fake, like gauges.

GR-8 · Postby **GR-8** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

My brother knows a place but I forgot the name. They do Transmissions. Pretty sure they can do rear-ends as well. I will be taking my Transmission there for a rebuild one day. (Some day) Forget Mazda. I'll try and figure out the name but they are in Denver off I-70 and Colorado Blvd.

My brother has had several Transmissions rebuilt by them.

Ok I think I found it. National Transmission.

tsx_guy wrote:i thought you were going to say gears were fake, like gauges.

Gears are fake.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

Don't do it!! Once you start, it's almost impossible to stop.... sure, it's just gears now, but wait until you're selling the souls of your unborn children in order to finance the fully built block & twin-turbo setup that eventually follows... it's like crack, but worse, as I don't think crack can be as easily purchased with a credit card (pure speculation). [/anti-mod_rant]

Didn't you just buy that '11 GT?!? LOL! What gears are you throwing in? What did it come with stock?

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

I'm no stranger to modding and how addictive it can get.

I fully planned on modding this car when I bought it. I can't just leave it stock, lol. It came with 3.55 gears but I'm considering switching to 4.10s. Intake, tune, and exhaust will all be happening shortly too.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be making some phone calls in the next couple weeks.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

I wouldn't recomend going to 4.10. That is going to be way too low and you will probably hate it after a while. I recomend going with something like 3.88.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

erod550 wrote:I'm no stranger to modding and how addictive it can get. I fully planned on modding this car when I bought it. I can't just leave it stock, lol. It came with 3.55 gears but I'm considering switching to 4.10s. Intake, tune, and exhaust will all be happening shortly too.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will be making some phone calls in the next couple weeks.

Yeah, I had a strong feeling that you had no intention of keeping that car stock haha (based on your sig, posts and threads you've made haha). I'm curious to see what the new 5.0 puts down.

Not to thread jack, but how does the 5.0 compare to your old bolt-on MS3?

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

I can get 3.90s instead of 4.10s but I don't know how much difference that would make. I still need to do some more research on how fast the top speed in 1st and 2nd especially would be with 4.10s. There's a couple guys running them at sea level and they love them and say it's not too much.

From a dig it's a night and day difference from my MS3. I can get on it at a light and it goes. With the MS3 I had to baby it in 1st and early 2nd and then I could get on it in upper 2nd and into 3rd.

From a roll I'm kind of disappointed so far with the Mustang. MS3s are beasts from a roll so I was kind of spoiled with what the car could do. In the Mustang when I punch it at 40 or 60-70 on the highway it just doesn't throw me back in my seat like I would like it to. I know some of that is perception because the power delivery is much smoother in the Mustang than the MS3. But part of it is also that I'm down ~75hp because of the altitude (~3% per 1000'). The few bolt-ons I have planned will help but so will the gears. I haven't dyno'd yet but I'm guessing I'm only putting down about 30-40 more hp at the wheels than I had in the MS3 and this car is 500lbs heavier. Ultimately, I would love to supercharge this thing but that is more money than I want to spend on it right now, especially while it's still brand new. Couple years from now we'll see what happens. Until then, I need a little help getting this boat moving quicker, heh.

Postby **RX-7 Chris** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

go with 3.90s. You will get the low speed power feel without killing your highway driving. believe it or not that little difference in gearing ratio makes a difference.

roninsoldier83 · Postby **roninsoldier83** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

erod550 wrote:I can get 3.90s instead of 4.10s but I don't know how much difference that would make. I still need to do some more research on how fast the top speed in 1st and 2nd especially would be with 4.10s. There's a couple guys running them at sea level and they love them and say it's not too much.

From a dig it's a night and day difference from my MS3. I can get on it at a light and it goes. With the MS3 I had to baby it in 1st and early 2nd and then I could get on it in upper 2nd and into 3rd.

From a roll I'm kind of disappointed so far with the Mustang. MS3s are beasts from a roll so I was kind of spoiled with what the car could do. In the Mustang when I punch it at 40 or 60-70 on the highway it just doesn't throw me back in my seat like I would like it to. I know some of that is perception because the power delivery is much smoother in the Mustang than the MS3. But part of it is also that I'm down ~75hp because of the altitude (~3% per 1000'). The few bolt-ons I have planned will help but so will the gears. I haven't dyno'd yet but I'm guessing I'm only putting down about 30-40 more hp at the wheels than I had in the MS3 and this car is 500lbs heavier. Ultimately, I would love to supercharge this thing but that is more money than I want to spend on it right now, especially while it's still brand new. Couple years from now we'll see what happens. Until then, I need a little help getting this boat moving quicker, heh.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of FWD for that exact reason... honestly though, NA cars typically have a much more linear torque curve than turbocharged cars, IMO, they typically don't feel as fast because you don't have that mid-range torque kick, even if they are. Also, in my experience, cars with shorter wheelbases will also feel faster than cars with longer wheelbases that are a bit more stable at speed. Just a perception... but I would think a fully bolted MS3 & a stock 5.0 Stang would be pretty comparable, with the advantage up here going to the boosted car.

FWIW, for every 1000 ft you go up in elevation, on average a turbo cars loses around 2.43% power vs about 4% for an NA car, although the size of the compressor/it's compressor map, as well as the adaptability of the ECU (many modern ECU's increase boost at elevation in order to diminish losses in power) all are factors to be considered. Those are the general ballpark values though.

Going from 3.55's to 4.10's is a heck of a jump that would be drastically noticeable haha.... I might plug a few values into a gearing calculator though, I know most American V8's have trannys with tall gears, but I would make sure you're not spinning ~4000rpm in 6th gear at 70mph haha. Either way, good luck with the project man!!

erod550 · Postby **erod550** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

So it looks like I'd lose about 6mph off of 1st gear, 9mph off of 2nd gear, 12mph off of 3rd going with 4.10s. Tons of guys are running the factory 3.73s and everyone loves them but I just don't think it would be enough of a difference to be worth the cost. Here are some comparisons between the different ratios using a spreadsheet I found online. Hopefully the numbers are correct. No matter which I chose between 3.90 and 4.10 I'll have to shift into 5th in the quarter.

Top speed in each gear (7000rpm) with 3.55s
1st - 43.3mph
2nd - 65.2mph
3rd - 93.8mph
4th - 120.1mph
5th - 158.5mph
6th - 243.9mph

Top speed in each gear with 4.10s
1st - 37.5mph
2nd - 56.5mph
3rd - 81.2mph
4th - 104.0mph
5th - 137.2mph
6th - 211.1mph

Top speed in each gear with 3.90s
1st - 39.4mph
2nd - 59.4mph
3rd - 85.4mph
4th - 109.3mph
5th - 144.3mph
6th - 222.0mph

Cruising RPMs in 6th on the highway (80mph)
3.55 - 2296
3.90 - 2623
4.10 - 2652

350rpm difference won't be that noticeable I don't think. And I may hold off on doing gears until I get a local job and don't have such a long commute on the highway anyway.

Renesis Rx · Postby **Renesis Rx** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:14

Talk to Mustang Paradise here in the Springs. All that guy does is restore Mustangs. He's done a lot of work on my Ex's 66 and he knows his stuff.

Ford Mechanic? Specifically rear end gears

Ford Mechanic? Specifically rear end gears

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