jimrankin Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 What a difference a gear makes...(and after writing this I just realized this is probably the wrong spot to post it and don't know how to move it) For the last several years I have been running a 3:50 rear gear in my S2K and while it was great for cruising the freeways it was quite lacking for track application (getting pulled in the straights after gains in the twistys) and general "spirited" driving. I decided since I was changing I might as well go "whole hog" and installed a 4:44 LSD unit in it's place. WOW!, I love the overall feel of the car much better with the new gears but being an Old Dog I'm really having a time with remembering what gear I'm in and which gear to shift to when I do. Freeway cruising has me constantly checking to make sure I'm actually in 6th because it feels like 4th, downshifting going into corners has me playing real easy on the clutch out as I'm not sure just how high it's going to rev or if it's going to add to brake input and lock up the rears. After endless weeks of no rain for our drought plagued state I finally change the differential and what happens, it's been raining on just about every day I've been home and not involved in something that kept me from using the car. I'm thinking of biting the bullet and going to Thunder Hill this Saturday but envision myself with a learning curve of off track excursions going into or coming out of the corners, or worse, a need for a new motor..;-(. WTH, gonna' do it, wish me luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slngsht Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 back in the day when I split time between my vette and frankn7, I had this problem. At one point I swapped the vette to 4.10, and frankn7 was at 3.42, both with the same engine and transmission. the car with 3.42 had half the weight of the other. I lost track of gears in both cars a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Well I imagine you don't use first gear much now;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 What a difference . . . . . I have been running a 3:50 rear gear . . . . . quite lacking for track application (getting pulled in the straights after gains in the twistys) and general "spirited" driving. I decided since I was changing I might as well go "whole hog" and installed a 4:44 LSD unit in it's place. WOW!, I love the overall feel . . . . . I'm thinking of biting the bullet and going to Thunder Hill this Saturday but envision myself with a learning curve of off track excursions going into or coming out of the corners, or worse, a need for a new motor..;-(. WTH, gonna' do it, wish me luck! Jim, What are you waiting for? You didn't install the new gears so you could sit around and look at the car........it's time to hit the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderbrake Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Those 4:44 gears really make a difference, enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitcat Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Same problem here when I went from the Sierra 5sp (in which 5th is overdrive), to the 6 sp Caterham, in which 6th is 1:1, like 4th on the Sierra's transmission. Lottsa "whoops" out there on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrankin Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Going to Thunder Hill this Saturday! They are running the full 5 mile configuration so should get a chance to learn the new shift points for all of the corners before the day is out. Going to be a bit of a knuckle biter for me as they are billing my usual run group as a chance for the NASA and SCCA racers to test their cars before their upcoming events. I'm hoping that all of them will be a bit rusty from the winter break or testing something new ;-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Going to Thunder Hill this Saturday! They are running the full 5 mile configuration so should get a chance to learn the new shift points for all of the corners before the day is out. Going to be a bit of a knuckle biter for me as they are billing my usual run group as a chance for the NASA and SCCA racers to test their cars before their upcoming events. I'm hoping that all of them will be a bit rusty from the winter break or testing something new ;-). Jim, They've probably all changed gaearing. :jester: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrankin Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Made it up to ThunderHill on Saturday and got in two 30 minute sessions and about 10 minutes of my third session when in the middle of turn four I went to power out and the motor just "quit". Bummer! Rolled off track and cranked it while watching the gauges and saw I had no fuel pressure, more bummer!. Yes, I did have gas LOL. Anyway, I got a tow back to the pits and did too much diagnostic to relate here and decided it was trailer time. I did really like the feel of the new gearing, 4:44 is SOOO much better than my old 3:50's, plus this posi unit seems to hook up better, could be the gears though. As I figured there would be I had a couple of "Opps, wrong gear" redlining and tire skipping downshifts into fast corners and spent a lot of the first two sessions trying to figure out just what gear worked best going in/coming out. I was a little faster around the whole 5 miles than with the old gears and think if I had the whole day to practice I could get a good bit more out of the car. Running into the same problem with the new gears as with the old, redlining before the end of the straights (now in 5th instead of 4th) so killing time a bit "coasting" just off the throttle. It wasn't worth upshifting to 5th with the old gears as red line was pretty close to the breaking zone. I'm getting redline earlier now so I think using 6th might actually save quite a bit of lost time, just didn't get a chance to try it before the car died. BTW, fuel delivery problem was a disconnected fuel line at my "in the tank" pump. The pump has a poor design with the high pressure outlet being a smooth un-barbed tube. I had two clamps on it and not a lot of room for it to slip off as the top of the cell is close. It found a way. Cheap fix I should have done when I replaced all the fuel lines three years ago, safety wires through the top clamp and through some added drilled holes in the pump retainer box. if I can add images in this new format note the smooth output tube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xcarguy Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Jim, glad the gearing is working out. But I have to admit, when I first saw the photos (prior to reading the post) i thought you had come up with some sort of IED and turned rouge. :jester: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimrankin Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 The only improvised exploding device I use is my head. If I knew my day was going to be so short I would have pushed harder. Went out figuring on driving at 80% so I wouldn't blow it up or put it into a wall if I "shift goofed" too badly but didn't really get the chance to see what it would do with the new gears. It was just getting nice and warm, probably mid 60's and finally getting the tires at least a little warm. Afternoon would have been spectacular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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