I have a '68 Mustang Coupe with the 289 and a 3-speed toploader......I currently have 2.79:1 gears in my 8" rear end.....Iplan on changing out the tranny for a 4-speed toploader this summer. I also plan on having the rear end rebuilt.....

So....My question is: What gears do you guys think would be ideal for me? The car should see very little to no time at the track. And I would like to be able to take the car on the highway and be able to get decent mileage.....I would like something a little steeper...but not too much....


Thanks in advance!

 

I put 3.25's in my 67 with your current setup and I'm very happy with them. In-city driving would be a lot better with lower gears (or a 4sp), but I do enough longfreeway trips that I wanted to be able to cruise at 70mph without any problems.

I would, however,consider a 5 speed conversion as opposed to the toploader if you plan on doing a fair amount of freeway driving. Then you could switch to shorter gears in the back (3.55 or 3.73's) for better in-town driveability and still get better mileage on the freeway.

 

I'm pretty set on the toploader......But you think 3.25's?

 

heck, go with a 5 speed and some 4.11's

thats what im doing

 

You may want to look at the toploader thread going on right now.

It really depends on the horsepower of your car and what you are doing with it. I have a four speed wide ratio with 3.50 rearend. Four gear is a 1.0 gear like 3rd for you. I turn about 3200 rpm at 70. That is just about right for me, but you may have different requirements. What I like about my setup, is I have some gearing for hard launches, but still reasonable highway gearing. If you go with something like a 3.0, you will turn less rpms at highway, but your lower gearing will suffer. With less horsepower, sometimes gearing is important.

 

I have the same gears as you currently, 2.79:1, and a C4 trany. Picked up a solid 4-speed toploader last month for 450.00 and will be switching out the gears for 3.25s in the 8" rear. The car will get some city driving however more highway driving as the wife drivers I295 30 to 60 minutes everyday to work.. depending on traffic. We use my 2003 Exploder for general run-abouts like groceries, etc.

I think with the 4-speed and 3.25 gears it'll be a great choice for daily driving. I wouldn't go any higher then 3.55 if your going to be doing a lot of highway driving.

 

Ya know, after thinking about it, you may want to look at 3.50's. I have 24" tall tires atm (shorter than most), accounting for my ~3200rpm @ 70mph. With 26" tires and 3.50's you're looking at about the same.

 

there are calculators for that (i once made one in excel).
you'll need to know the tyre diameter (measure from center to top and double that).
as urban_cowboy points out, no matter if 3spd or 4spd, if you don't have overdrive the highest gear will be 1:1
So changing from 3spd to 4spd will change nothing about max high speed or how it's revving at 60mph.
It doesn't make much sense answering this when we don't know:
- your tyre diamenter
- what you want to achieve: racing from traffic light to traffic light, normal cruising with occasional foot on throttle or freeway cruising

 

What I see is that the OP wants better throttle response and a livelier-feeling car. Racing isn't apriority, but there is some concern for highway cruise rpm.

I think that 3.25's are theway to go, assuming 25.6-ish tall tires (~815 revs per mile). That's enough for some "sparkle" in the throttle response, with only about a 400 - 450 rpm highway rpm penalty.

3.55's are do-able, but would bring on another 250 - 300 highway rpm (650 - 750 above current).


At one point I was going to swap 3.42's into my thumbnail car, with very similar thoughts in mind. That car is a little heavier, had about the same power, and was still a 4-speed at the time. Point being that the '68 can get away with having a little less gear (than 3.42) and still be enjoyable to drive.


Norm

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[quote]ORIGINAL: Norm Peterson

That's exactly what I want....

This all sounds great......I plan on running 16" wheels with maybe 50 series tires inthe front and 55 series tires in the rear.....But...I'm not sure how the 55's will fit.....Any info on tire fitment?