I have an 80 volare with slant six, automatic transmission and 2 bbl supersix and 2.76 gears in the rear. The 904 automatic gear ratios are 2.45 - 1.45 and 1:1. I just acquired a 76 Aspen donor car for the 4 speed conversion this car has 3.23 rear gears.
The trans is an A-833 OD the gear ratios are 3.09:1 - 1.67:1 - 1:1 - 0.73:1 I will be running 235/55 17 tires that are about 27" in diameter (similar to a 255/60R15)

Has anyone run a combination like this? It looks like I will have a lower overall first gear ratio but a larger gap in the 1-2 shift. Im trying to figure out if this will be an acceptable combination for a daily driver street car or if I will HAVE to swap the rear also.

Thank you,
Scott

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Scott
1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer
1980 Road Runner (Dont call it a Volare!)
2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab
1976 Corvette Stingray

In overdrive 4th gear, your final drive ratio with a 2.76 rear axle will be 1.93...really way too tall to be of much use unless you're driving from here to Hell (and not the one in Michigan) and not planning on coming back.

For reference, with a 3.23 rear axle, your final drive ratio in 4th gear would be 2.26.

With a 3.55 rear axle, it would be 2.49.

With a 3.91 rear axle, it would be 2.74.

Especially with those tall tires of yours, you'll definitely want to swap the rear axle.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I can tell you from first hand experience with 'stock' 195/75/14 tires and the kind 3.09 1st gear it tends to need a bunch of clutch babying to get even a late Duster to motivate out of the stop light, things are fine once you are rolling, but your Volare will just be a pig with that combo... 3.55's minimum in the rear with the OD and a bigger tire diameter...

You can also look over at moparts and grab their tranny calculator (got Microsoft Excel?), it'll allow you to input your tranny ratios, rear gearing, and tire size so you can see where your rpm's will be during cruise/launch/etc... (running at 1200 rpm in OD for cruise is not going to be so good...)

good luck,

-D.idiot

In my 63 Dart (a little lighter then a Volare) I have a 2.76 rear gear with a 3 speed manual non syncro first, and a 170 slant, 215-60-15 rear tires. Getting the car off the line is a chore and not kind to the clutch. Once moving, everything is ok unless I need first gear.

Performance wise, with the 170, if I shift out of 1st at 4000 and hold 2nd to 4200~4300 0-60 is right at 19 seconds. If I make the 2~3 shift at 4000 0-60 is about 21 seconds.

Once the 225 is in (the 170 is already half way out) I am going to test the combo again, it should be a little better. The final combo I am planning is an 833OD with a 3.23 rear gear. I already have most all of the parts. I am hoping to get good gas mileage with a bit more power.

With your combo, I would use shorter rear tires, with at least the 3.23 or maybe a 3.55 even. Sounds like a nice ride in the making.

TopHat

Too much gear.

I run 235 60 14 = 25" tall with a .70 OD (5speed) and 3.55 gears. I used to have 3.23 gears....

I wish I had purchased 3.73 gears instead.

You will never use 4th gear...and you wont be able to launch your car.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

No.

My 76 Feather Duster is a 4 speed car with the stock rear end gear (similar to what you've got) and 235/60 15 T A radials on 15 X 7 Mope cop car wheels (yeah, I trimmed the front wheel well flanges, but you can't tell).
Yes, it is a dog accelerating, and yes, you have to feather the clutch a little more in first gear than with the 195/14s, and yes, if you need to do much more than maintain speed or coast at anything less than 50 mph you need third gear, but rest assured all the horror stories aren't true. The car IS my daily and works just fine. The mileage if anything has gone up a pinch and the clutch (replaced for the first time of my ownership last summer with standard, NOT heavy duty parts at 276,000 miles after owning the car 21 years) seems to be holding up OK.
Admittedly I'm putting together an 8 3/4 3.55 SureGrip for the car, but with fuel pushing four bucks a gallon, I'm not in as big of a hurry to stuff in my 340 and the priority for the 8 3/4 isn't as great. Matter of fact, I spoke with the people at Clifford and as soon as they get 10 orders for the HyperPak manifolds, they're doing another run, and now I'm leaning more in the direction of an injected slant six built for mileage using the HyperPak manifold, so the car may not get the 8 3/4 until then.
I guess this is my long winded way of saying, naysayers not withstanding, it works for me and to go ahead and slap in the 833. You can always change out the rear gear later.

Thanks to everyone for your feedback.
I am glad I asked, I will make sure that I pull the rear with the 3.23's when I ptried to find a tire ull the 4 speed setup. It may be ok for me to drive on weekends with the tall gears and squeeze out mpg's but this car is being built for my son's first car and I will have to swap out the rear before handing it over to him.
There is a lot of trial and error going on here with the tires. The rims came with 245/45 17s on them and they were almost the same diameter as the original 195/75 14 tires that are on the car but looked like baloney skins on the rims. The car looked too much like a "tuner" car for my taste. I needed more rubber to fill up the wheel well and used the tire sizes that people were running on the 15x7 cop rims as my guide.
Scott

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Scott
1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer
1980 Road Runner (Dont call it a Volare!)
2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab
1976 Corvette Stingray

Manual-trans Feather Duster/Dart Lite cars did not get 2.76 rear gears as stock equipment.

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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Yeah, the Feather got the 2.94 for the manual tranny, the 2.76 for the A904 tranny, and there have been a smattering of 2.94/3.23 opinion on the 'early' A230 3 spd Feather Dusters built in the late 1975 dates (some with 9" drum brakes)...

Having plugged both the 2.76 and a 2.94 7.25" rear into a 1974 duster I can say the 2.94 with stock tires is much easier to get motivated, and seems to sound better (rpm wise) when doing highway travel (currently beater Valiant has the 2.94 with 3spd option and it's not hard to get off the line, and I'm not sure if I had the OD things would be 'happy' with the
engine combination either...

Now would be a good time for Kesteb to chime up since I think he ran a mid-60's car with the 2.45 rear gearing...(lighter car, stocker tires I think)...

-D.Idiot

Thanks for the heads up on the rear end ratio. I knew I had read that it was in the 2.7- 2.9 range, but I also knew the slant six in my Feather Duster was a little more tired than most. When I put the clutch in last summer you could grab the flywheel ring gear lightly with both hands and turn the engine over for as many revolutions as you cared to. This lead me to believe my very tired engine would approximate the experience of someone with slightly taller tires or a rear end ratio was slightly less forgiving if their engine was up to snuff.

hello dan, di and other sl6 sages- interesting discussion of the rear ratio. my old aspen wagon had the 4spd od and a 3.2 rear. that seemed to be a perfect combination for that weight car in mixed city and highway driving. could launch easily with the 3.09 first. my 76 feather has the od and the 2.9 rear.that combo gave a final drive of 2.15, probably as high as one could go. 1.97 seems too high to pull unless you cruise at 80. both got good mpg, the feather sometimes got 32 on the highway. feather was a little sluggish with the 2.9 but i dont think it prematurely wore the clutch. thought of putting a 3.2 gear in the feather, to remove the sluggishness. jersey winters reduced the aspen to a rust flake. now have an 80 volare wagon with a 3 speed a230 and a 3.2 rear gear. since this has no od i wonder if it would do better with a 2.9 or 2.7 rear. guessing it would be sluggish with the 2.7 rear though. had a 73 valiant once with the a230 3 spd and a 2.7 gear which ran fine with a 318 v8 but sucked gas. wondered if the lower weight of the feather really made a difference . some said it was not that critical . maybe di could shed some light on that. heard too that a 2.45 rear was available, that must have been strictly with automatics, never saw one of those with a stick. regards bob fisher

My aspen Wagon has 2.45's from the factory - it's a california car with a 904 and a 318 4 barrel.

The 2.76's are rough even with a stock slant and and an auto in an f body due to the weight.

I currently have the od 833 in my duster (f Body) with a 3.21 Geared 8.25" rear - It can be sluggish off the line and is good in od on a flat rad at 60+ MPH - Great for cruising but when you hit just a slight grade it want to go into 1:1 to pull the grade.

I think you would be happiest with a 3.55 or 3.73 Gear in the rear for this combo - especially if you slant is all stock! with the OD those gears will give you a 2.41 or a 2.53 Final drive ratio respectively. Tire Height is also a huge player in this game too.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

hello di- been following your comments here in this thread. have one question for you since you seem to know more than me about feathers and f body gearings. my 80 volare wagon with the sl6, 3spd a230 and a 3.2 diff gear runs well overall and is not sluggish. sometimes these relics show up in the yards here. if i was to find an fbody which had a 2.9 diff gear i could readily swap the assembly into the 80 wagon. i think sl6 automatic f bodies may have had the 2.9 diff. seems to me it would then get better mpg around town. i remember a detailed article on gearing in poehlers old sl6 news mag which said a final drive of about 3.0 would be satisfactory for an f body or an a body in local driving. what do you think. uncle moe said too much work for too little gain. actually said my gas gains would be used up in an early clutch replacement. i think he is exaggerating. thanks bob fisher

That is a really nice combo, particularly with carefully-selected tire size.

2.45 and 2.26 ratios were desperation cheapie measures to squeak past Federal CAFE and emission certification tests without building the cars right. You're right, those went behind automatics only and even with the wide-ratio Torqueflite, tended to give 0-60 times best measured with a calendar rather than a stopwatch

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.