I agree about 1st gear, but I wish second were a little lower so it wasn't quite as big of a "jump" into second gear. Going from 3.06:1 in first to 1.67:1 in second is a BIG jump. I'd rather see second gear somewhat closer to 2:1

I'm running 4.10 axle gears and 29" tires right now, but I picked up a 4.56 rear axle for $100 the other day and I think I'll put it in to see how it does. With the same 29" tires the final drive ratio will be 11% lower, and even if I go to 31" tires it would still be about a 3% lower final drive ratio. That ought to give it a little more acceleration in 4th without quite such an early kickdown into 3rd.

 

Have you wired the lock-up to the throttle? I have and it unlocks about 3/4 throttle and "splits" the gear to give it that extra little acceleration without droping a gear.

 

No the TC lockup is totally disabled right now - or rather it hasn't been enabled yet. Haven't ever hooked it up yet. I'm just too focused on trying to kill this vibration...

 

On mine, the valve body was setup so all I had to do was put 12v to it and it only enguages in od and disenguages @ 40mpg. I then installed a switch on the throttle linkage to break the 12v prior to down shift.

 

From what I've read, all 85 & older 700R4's are set up that way. With the addition of the switch it sounds like a good system...

 

GOOD NEWS! I think my vibration issue is solved. I revised the motor mounting system by boring out the holes for the 1/2" bolts that hold the cross member mounts to the bottom of the uni-frame to 3/4" and adding rubber sleeves (pieces of 1/2" heater hose) around the shaft of the bolts where they pass through the uniframe. I also put 3/8" rubber pads under the heads of the bolts on top and 1/4" rubber pads between the motor mounts and the uni-frame on the bottom.

So, now there is no metal to metal contact anywhere - all metal parts where the crossmember mounts to the uniframe are rubber isolated. While I had the engine dropped down I also swapped the harmonic balancer - just for good measure - even though the original seemed perfectly fine. While I was at it I got rid of those lousy torx bolts that holds it to the hub and replaced them with hex key cap-screws.

Now at 750 RPMs with the uniframe still sitting on jackstands (no suspension or tire rubber to dampen things) the vibrations are about 1/3 or 1/4 of what they were before with the engine idle at 1000+ RPMs and the front wheels on the ground. I expect that when I get all 4 wheels on the ground again the vibrations will be squelched even further!

I'm one happy camper! My next step is to swap in a rear end with 4.56 gears on Monday to get more use out of the engine's torque at low RPMs. That will reduce my gearing by roughly 11%. If that works out well I have another rear end with 4.88 gears I'll swap in so I can upsize to 31" tires and still retain that 10%-11% gearing reduction. If the 4.56 gears are too much of a gearing reduction I can always leave that rear axle in and put the 31"s on anyway and that would get it back to almost where it is now. Actually that would still be a 3% gearing reduction, but that's a lot different from a 10%-11%.

Once I have the gearing/tire combo worked out it will be time to regear the front to match and shorten the front driveline to get the 4WD working....

 

That's great news! Are you going to start driving it more now?

 

YOU BET!

 

Any trips planed down south ?

 

No immediate plans yet. I have driven it a couple of hundred miles around town and one 100 mile round trip so far, but I haven't worked my way up to a couple of hundred miles in one stretch yet.