Re: [A/S] newbie questions

["Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <geraldj@xxxxxxxx>]

The dealer may be able to tell axle ratio from the door tag (in some
worlds its printed on there plainly) or serial number. If that fails the
best way is to raise both rear wheels, mark them with chalk, mark the
drive shaft and count the drive shaft turns to move both rear wheels
exactly one turn. You can turn both rear wheels or the drive shaft by
hand to make the count.

Then a good hot rod shop can put in something like 4.10 gears to make it
pull a lot better. I did that for my F-150 and it works really well, for
this engine and transmission (5 speed manual) it didn't change the gas
mileage. Finding the right speedometer gear is a real pain, but is
practical, also there are a couple places making electronic correctors
for models that use a pulse sensor instead of a speedometer cable though
the last couple years, the speedometer correction is in the main
computer and can be set with the proper laptop software. My '98 F-150
just missed that handiness.

There is a shop near here that makes the gear swaps all the time.

Check to see that your transmission cooler is as big as possible. Its
almost impossible to have too much transmission cooler and some trucks
have them without the towing package.

Gerald J.
K0CQ