I am officially 4X4!!!

[mattferguson14]

Hello all! For those of you who have been following my posts, I received my front drive shaft (much thanks to Bartman AKA Scott for making me a hell of a deal on it) last week. Last night I installed it. The moment of truth!! I reconnected the TOD ECU and drove around the block. Not noises, no grinding, no clicking, no check TOD light. Everything functioned perfectly! So I threw it in 4LO and man does this thing have some torque! I wish I could find the last PO and ask them what all they did to my VX. I know I have a 3 inch Calmini lift with 1 inch body spacers and a 2 inch diff drop. I am wondering if they also geared this thing down? The torque was surprising in 2 wheel, but in 4LO it is intense! Any way to tell if it's been geared without tearing apart the diffs?

Now I just need to have my new Moog ball joints and tie-rod ends installed and an alignment done. I also have new Calmini shocks coming, but they are on back order for 2-3 weeks.

Anyway, I just wanted to send a special thanks out to all of those who have helped me out with advice over the past few months. I have gained more info from this forum than I could have ever gotten anywhere else. So with that said, I just donated $20 to the Vehicross.info forum. As some others have said, best $20 I spent on my VX all year!

Thanks again guys! I'm sure I'll be on here hounding you for more info soon!

[JoFotoz]

Awesome Matt

Glad it went together well..and works!!

One way to ascertain re-gearing is to check speedo accuracy.

Given you have bigger tires, it WILL be off anyway ( reading low).. BUT...

If you get the % that its off ( via GPS or rolling road maybe)..then compare with another owner
with same size tires that knows they have OEM gearing...
..that should give you an answer.

And as you say..the messy way is to open up rear diff and count pinion & ring gear teeth.
No need to open front too..as it will match rear!

Good on ya for donating too...
We'd all be lost without this great site and the time/cost 'n effort that Scott puts in to keep it going !!

Cheers

Jo

[tom4bren]

I think you can just jack up one front wheel and turn it. IIRC the front prop shaft should turn 4.30 times for each complete revolution of the wheel. I might have that backwards though. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[MSHardeman]

I think it's probably just normal. I know when I drop my VX into 4-lo it feels like she "sits up" (for lack of a better term) and wants to go go go! I really have to stand on the brake pedal to keep her from moving forward.

[bartmanS4]

Awesome, glad the shaft worked out for you and no apparent CV issues.

I think you can just jack up one front wheel and turn it. IIRC the front prop shaft should turn 4.30 times for each complete revolution of the wheel. I might have that backwards though. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

That's correct and if it turns 4.5 or 4.8 times you would know it has 4.56 or 4.77 gearing respectively.

[JoFotoz]

AWESOME... never knew the "turn the wheel" trick

Learning something new every day

Cheers

Jo

[tom4bren]

AWESOME... never knew the "turn the wheel" trick

Learning something new every day

Cheers

Jo

DANG. All this time we've been living under the erroneous assumption that the Whore Jockey was untrainable. Go figger!!!

[mattferguson14]

Awesome, glad the shaft worked out for you and no apparent CV issues.



That's correct and if it turns 4.5 or 4.8 times you would know it has 4.56 or 4.77 gearing respectively.

My only problem with this is, how the heck can I tell the difference between 4.5 revolutions and 4.8?? it seems like such a miniscule amount.. will it be apparently obvious, or will I need to use some type of measuring device?

[bartmanS4]

Think of it as 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 of a turn. If you mark the shaft you should be able to determine that

[tom4bren]

... it seems like such a miniscule amount...

Think of it this way: at highway speeds, your tach is reading 2500-3000 RPM. That miniscule amount is starting to make a big difference now - ain't it?

The other way to look at it is that switching from 4.30 to 4.77s is basically giving you an 11% underdrive.

Think of it as 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 of a turn. If you mark the shaft you should be able to determine that

Or think analog clock. 4.30 will leave your reference mark close to 4 oclock. 4.55s will leave the mark near 6 oclock. 4.77s will leave the mark near 9 oclock. That's assuming of course that you start with your mark at 12 oclock.

[circmand]

Think of it this way: at highway speeds, your tach is reading 2500-3000 RPM. That miniscule amount is starting to make a big difference now - ain't it?

The other way to look at it is that switching from 4.30 to 4.77s is basically giving you an 11% underdrive.



Or think analog clock. 4.30 will leave your reference mark close to 4 oclock. 4.55s will leave the mark near 6 oclock. 4.77s will leave the mark near 9 oclock. That's assuming of course that you start with your mark at 12 oclock.

We are just a bit too into this?

[tom4bren]

We are just a bit too into this?

I commute 2-4 hours every day .... that gives me WAAAAAY too much time to think up smart arse responses for the forum!!!

[LittleBeast]

Matt, great post. Two thumbs up!!