Rear End Gears

[Joe C.]

Re: Rear End Gears

My 1959 Corvette has 411 Gears Im in 4th gear at 35 MPH I want to change
to gears that allow me to go 70 MPH or higher Now I get to about 60 MPH and tack
about 3000 Any suggestions on what I should change to?
Thanks
Tom Brennan 60456

The best thing you can do is to put a 5 speed in it, and leave the axle ratio at 4.11.

[Gene M.]

Re: Rear End Gears

All these suggestions to change this and that are taking the car away from original. If you alter anything from original the "feel" changes too. If you don't care then go for it. But how much is good while not stepping over the line of original and into street rod or street prepared Corvette?

Anything that is replaceable back the way it was should be cool. But be sure to retain original parts that you took off. I've done a lot of adds and upgrades to my driver that are all reversible and undetectable if put back the way it was. My goals were safety, stay cool, and be able to sustain 80 mph without excessive rpm on the 327.

You may find a higher gear change alone will hinder other areas of performance as was mentioned. One alteration may lead to another to get desirable results such as less camshaft as in lower HP engines or more transmission gears. Everything changed has to work together.

[Steven B.]

Re: Rear End Gears

I decided to go with 336 gears The car runs good It appears the speedometer is not accurate Also the tach Is that
what happend when you switch gears What is the best method to correct Thanks Tom Brennan (60456)

Speedometer error: Are your current tires similar in size (diameter/circumference) to the original 6.70's? If not that will "alter" your speedo readings.