GEARSWAP INFO NEEDED!!!

EPIK · Aug 3, 2004

I HAVE A 96 AUTO GT AND AM INTERESTED IN DOING A GEARSWAP, BUT I AM NOT SURE WHAT GEARS TO GET. I KINDA KNOW WHAT THE BENEFITS OF THE SWAP ARE,BUT IF SOMEONE COULD FURTHER EXPLAIN IT WOULD REALLY HELP. ALSO MY STANG IS A DAILY DRIVER SO I WOULDNT WANT TO PUT GEARS IN IF THEY ARE GONNA DAMAGE MY REAREND. SO FAR IT IS MOSTLY STOCK BESIDES THE 40 SERIES FLOWS,AND A BASSANI CATTED X I AM WAITING TO INSTALL WHEN I CAN PICK UP SOME FRPP SHORTY HEADERS FOR A DECENT PRICE,BUT I AM NOW HOOKED ON MODS SO I PLAN ON GOING ALL OUT. WELL ANYWAY, IF SOMEONE COULD HELP WITH SOME GEAR INFO IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED....THANKS : :

kboy262 · Aug 3, 2004

With you having an auto I would definetly go with 4.10 no less.

StangLou · Aug 3, 2004

Gears are a good mod, but many times the price can get pretty high. First off your gears will run you around $150. Then you need a good shop to install them, $200-250. Since your an auto I would go with 4.10's. There should be no damage done if they are installed correctly by a good shop. You will also need to recalibrate your speedo. If this isnt done you will rack up a ton of "false" miles. Since your a '96 I think you can do the cheap gear tooth method. The only catch would be since your an auto, you may have to do a chip which will run anywhere from $300-500 extra if you do an all out dyno tune. I know in 99+ cars, auto's HAVE to have a chip, nothing else will work. 5-speeds can get away with a speedcal, but I am not 100% sure what you can do with yours since its a '96 auto Anyone else know for sure if he can just do the speedo gear swap?

Dark Knight GT · Aug 3, 2004

EPIKGT said:
I HAVE A 96 AUTO GT AND AM INTERESTED IN DOING A GEARSWAP, BUT I AM NOT SURE WHAT GEARS TO GET. I KINDA KNOW WHAT THE BENEFITS OF THE SWAP ARE,BUT IF SOMEONE COULD FURTHER EXPLAIN IT WOULD REALLY HELP. ALSO MY STANG IS A DAILY DRIVER SO I WOULDNT WANT TO PUT GEARS IN IF THEY ARE GONNA DAMAGE MY REAREND. SO FAR IT IS MOSTLY STOCK BESIDES THE 40 SERIES FLOWS,AND A BASSANI CATTED X I AM WAITING TO INSTALL WHEN I CAN PICK UP SOME FRPP SHORTY HEADERS FOR A DECENT PRICE,BUT I AM NOW HOOKED ON MODS SO I PLAN ON GOING ALL OUT. WELL ANYWAY, IF SOMEONE COULD HELP WITH SOME GEAR INFO IT WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED....THANKS : :

I highly recommend 4.10s or 4.30's for an automatic, whether daily driver or not. I have 4.30's in my 01 auto GT which I drive normally and I really didn't see any loss in mpg with the gear swap. I use OEM 4.30 gears and I got them from Randy Stinchcomb. He is a Ford parts dealer but is out of his office until the 8th of this month I believe.

You can contact him here though:http://forums.modulardepot.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=21 I highly recommend you talk to him first before ordering gears. He will help you with all the parts you need.

A lot of guys also buy Ford Racing gears at placings like www.stangstore.com and www.mustangtuning.com

As Stanlou said above, I would get them installed by someone who knows what they're doing. Changing gears insn't like changing spark plugs. This is actually something that is difficult and requires precision. For the gear install, you will also need 2qts. of rear diff. fluid and a 4oz. bottle of friction modifier. Randy can get you this stuff as well so mention it to him when you contact him.

Since you have an automatic, you will need something to correct your speedometer and your shift points with the new gears. I highly recommend Superchips Tuning. They can burn you a custom chip that you can plug into your computer and it should work fine when correcting the speedometer and shift points. You could always go the cheap route and buy a speedo gear to correct the speedo but I don't recommend that as it is inaccurate by nearly 10mph and will not do anything to correct your shift points. For an automatic, your only choices to correct the shifts and speedometer in one process is either buy a hand held programmer that will let you flash the computer, a chip, or dyno tune. Out of the three, a dyno tune is best but will be more difficult as you have to get the car to a dyno tuner to do it. A chip will probaby be your best bet. Again, I recommend Superchips Tuning, but there are other places that will burn a custom chip for your application like Diabalo, Autologic, and others.

Another thing I recommend is if you don't currently have one, I recommend getting a transmission cooler. Heat is the number one killer of automatic transmissions. A cooler will help to reduce the transmission temperature and provide longer transmission life. Once you get aftermarket gears, you will definately need one of these.

If you have any other questions, just let us know.

EPIK · Aug 3, 2004

THANKS 4 ALL THE HELP .I WILL LET YOU GUYS KNOW LATER HOW IT WORKED OUT.OR I WILL POST AGAIN LATER IF I NEED MORE INFO...

GTvert01 · Aug 3, 2004

Just like everyone else said, don't go any higher than 4.10 or you will be disappointed.I would probably even go 4.30 with an auto.

EPIK · Aug 3, 2004

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 3.55,3.73,4.10,& 4.30....I AM NEW TO THIS SO FORGIVE MY IGNORANCE CAUSE IM NOT SO SURE...ALSO WHAT DOES MY STOCK 96 AUTO HAVE IN IT CURRENTLY.AND IF I DO A 4.30 GEARSWAP WHAT KIND OF DIFFERENCE WOULD I SEE OVER STOCK?

GTvert01 · Aug 3, 2004

The higher the number, the lower the gear ratio.Your car will accelerate faster with lower gears. The lowest gear you could have came out with stock is 3.27.You will notice a huge difference with a change, esecially if you jump to 4.10 or 4.30.Your car will change gears at lower speeds because your rpms are moving a lot faster.

StangLou · Aug 3, 2004

Each time you go up, say from 3.27's to 3.55's you will notice around a 200-300rpm difference at a set speed. Say you go from 3.27's to 3.73's like I did, I noticed right about 550-600 higher rpm difference on the tach at say 70mph. If I was to go to 4.10's I would expect to see another 200-300rpm increase at the same speed. This is just a rule of thumb though. Dont the '96's have a worse initial gearing than 3.27's??? I know 3.27's are the stock gearing for 99+'s.

GTvert01 · Aug 3, 2004

StangLou said:
Dont the '96's have a worse initial gearing than 3.27's??? I know 3.27's are the stock gearing for 99+'s.

I wasn't 100% sure, but I knew that they were no lower than that.I thought that they were 3.08s, but without being sure, I gave the auto the benefit of the doubt.Either way, they need to be lower.

Milenko · Aug 3, 2004

GTvert01 said:
I wasn't 100% sure, but I knew that they were no lower than that.I thought that they were 3.08s, but without being sure, I gave the auto the benefit of the doubt.Either way, they need to be lower.

Some came with 2.73's

BuffaloZone · Aug 3, 2004

I went with 4.10's and finally getting them installed next Monday. My question is which gear oil is/should be used -- 80w90 "Premium" XY-80W90-QL
or the 75w140 "Synthetic" XY-75W140-QL gear oil? I'm asking because my owners manual shows both PNs. The "Premium" footnotes that the friction modifier is needed, but no such footnote is listed for the "Synthetic" lube. The synthetic doesn't need the modifier...or does it mean that "performance axle" (needing the friction modifier) doesn't use the synthetic 75w140? Thanks.

Dark Knight GT said:
I highly recommend 4.10s or 4.30's for an automatic, whether daily driver or not. I have 4.30's in my 01 auto GT which I drive normally and I really didn't see any loss in mpg with the gear swap. I use OEM 4.30 gears and I got them from Randy Stinchcomb. He is a Ford parts dealer but is out of his office until the 8th of this month I believe.

You can contact him here though:http://forums.modulardepot.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=21 I highly recommend you talk to him first before ordering gears. He will help you with all the parts you need.

A lot of guys also buy Ford Racing gears at placings like www.stangstore.com and www.mustangtuning.com

As Stanlou said above, I would get them installed by someone who knows what they're doing. Changing gears insn't like changing spark plugs. This is actually something that is difficult and requires precision. For the gear install, you will also need 2qts. of rear diff. fluid and a 4oz. bottle of friction modifier. Randy can get you this stuff as well so mention it to him when you contact him.

Since you have an automatic, you will need something to correct your speedometer and your shift points with the new gears. I highly recommend Superchips Tuning. They can burn you a custom chip that you can plug into your computer and it should work fine when correcting the speedometer and shift points. You could always go the cheap route and buy a speedo gear to correct the speedo but I don't recommend that as it is inaccurate by nearly 10mph and will not do anything to correct your shift points. For an automatic, your only choices to correct the shifts and speedometer in one process is either buy a hand held programmer that will let you flash the computer, a chip, or dyno tune. Out of the three, a dyno tune is best but will be more difficult as you have to get the car to a dyno tuner to do it. A chip will probaby be your best bet. Again, I recommend Superchips Tuning, but there are other places that will burn a custom chip for your application like Diabalo, Autologic, and others.

Another thing I recommend is if you don't currently have one, I recommend getting a transmission cooler. Heat is the number one killer of automatic transmissions. A cooler will help to reduce the transmission temperature and provide longer transmission life. Once you get aftermarket gears, you will definately need one of these.

If you have any other questions, just let us know.

GTvert01 · Aug 3, 2004

Milenko said:
Some came with 2.73's

The automatics did?

Milenko · Aug 3, 2004

GTvert01 said:
The automatics did?

Good call, I don't know.

I know that 2.73's were available for that year though.

EPIK · Aug 3, 2004

SO IF I DO DECIDE TO GO WITH 4.10 OR 4.30 GEARS AND I GET THEM DONE RIGHT,AND ALSO GET A TRANNY COOLER,NO KIND OF DAMAGE CAN HAPPEN TO MY CAR. EVEN IF IT IS A DAILY DRIVER?

GDawg · Aug 3, 2004

GTvert01 said:
The automatics did?

In '96 the autos came with 3.08 and the 5-speeds came with the 2.73. In '98 the "optional rear ratio" was offered and it was the 3.27.

Dark Knight GT · Aug 3, 2004

BuffaloZone said:
I went with 4.10's and finally getting them installed next Monday. My question is which gear oil is/should be used -- 80w90 "Premium" XY-80W90-QL
or the 75w140 "Synthetic" XY-75W140-QL gear oil? I'm asking because my owners manual shows both PNs. The "Premium" footnotes that the friction modifier is needed, but no such footnote is listed for the "Synthetic" lube. The synthetic doesn't need the modifier...or does it mean that "performance axle" (needing the friction modifier) doesn't use the synthetic 75w140? Thanks.

If your car is still under warranty, then use the Motorcraft synthetic 75w-140. I'de still get a bottle of friction modifier anyways. Some say you don't need them but don't chance fugging up the differential. I use Amsoil 75w-90 and I have no problems with it so ever.

KDubb619 · Jul 12, 2005

I noticed a few goods and bads with gear changes, I have 3.73's in an 02 GT with AOD-E tranny (3.27's):

Good:
(1)From 0-65 MPH the car pulls hard and chirps the wheels all way up the shift points.
(2)60 ft. times well reduced, ET's reduced by around 3 tenths.
(3)Its rather affordable, I paid $400 for gears and install.

Bad:
(1)I had to buy a programmer to calibrate the speedo, I went with Superchips and picked one up for $145 (good luck finding that deal again!)
(2)Gas mileage reduced as my RPM's are at 2700 @ 75 MPH now...used to be 2200
(3)Lower trap speed, don't understand this one though????

My biggest complaint that no one mentions ANYWHERE is this:

Everyone talks about this SOTP feeling...sure it occurs down aroun 30 MPH or so...but be prepared for your car to feel sluggish at freeway speeds!!!! I totally miss the tranny dropping down to 2nd gear when I'm cruising at 75 MPH, and feeling that "flying" feeling with the engine revving hard. Won't happen anymore! In fact, I used to be able to go from 75 MPH to 100 like a bat out of hell...not anymore! It still climbs the speed scales briskly but not like it used to...I miss that...maybe NOS will help? Any suggestions??????

I drive the freeway a lot and 4.10's would be a joke on the freeway. People say that AOD has a long OD or 4th, this is true but be prepared to run around 3000 RPM's on the freeway! And if you drive a lot of open highway miles then purchase a gas card...you'll need it! I drive 60+ miles a day and fill up 2-3 times a week.

If all you do is race your car, then get a beastly rear end bro!!!

DropTopPony · Jul 12, 2005

Milenko said:
Some came with 2.73's

my 96gt auto came with 2:73's.
I switched to 3:73 because of the amount of highway driving i used to do. I think 4:10's would be just as good on the freeway. Also you can use the speedo gear, i think i have 23tooth but my speedo is still off @90mph.

Also Epikgt....TURN OFF THE CAP LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

90RanGer · Jul 12, 2005

Apex Motorsports in Santa Clara charges 450 installed for fms gears, you can get 3.55, 3.73 or 4.10 for that price. Oh and typing in capslock is really annoying.
http://www.apexmotorsports.com/

Edit why did I even type this, this damn topic is from 2004.

GEARSWAP INFO NEEDED!!!

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