Regarding gear ratios.... I believe that the goal of modern car makers is
quiet, economical high speed cruising- that is under 2,000 RPM at 65+ MPH.
Since the efficiency of a hypoid gearset decreases with lower ratios, the best
combination is a rear around 2.75:1 and an over drive gear on the
transmission. The other gears exist simply to get the car moving from a stop
and getting it up to top gear.
If this is the goal, then the car makers have suceeded at what they were
trying to do. While this produces rather wide gears, most buyers of new cars
don't seem to mind. It gives a good first gear that is easy to satrt off in
and the other gears are simply spaced between this relatively low first and
the over drive fifth (or sixth).
While the Toyota transmissions may leave something to be desired, they do
provide that needed fifth gear. An overdrive transmission might be a better
choice, but these are hard to find.
Jan Eyerman
1959 Hillman Minx Series III DeLuxe with a TRULY BAD transmission
1973 Hillman Avenger DL unfortunately an automatic
Jarrid Gross <JGross@econolite.com> wrote:
Ben,
>In the Victoria British catalog, it shows some sway
>bars and polyurethane bushings and adjustable shocks are available.
First warning,
VB knows nothing of what they sell, there IS a difference between
the early and late sway bars even if VB says a single bar fits all
applications.
If you have a SIII then the only high performance sway bar that I know
fits is the one that Sunbeam Specialties sells.
I know it fits becuase I was one of several that helped get it developed.
The bar is a 7/8 thickness, and from my experience made the car
nearly nuetral from a heavy push beforehand.
Dont know if VB knows anything about a "correct" bushing for sunbeam
sway bars either, rootes was rather unconventional about the design
and use of sway bars, and as such the sway bar bushing becomes nearly as
important as the thickness of the sway bar itself.
I felt that rubber bushings didnt do the job properly, so I made my
own out of nylon. This makes a very big difference in the effective
rate of the sway bar as it eliminates hysteresis and reduces rubber
based impact on the effective torsion rate.
As to shocks, they "VB" sell pretty much the same as the rest of the
bunch, so no foul here.
I like the action of spax, although I wish I could get a set of
Koni's for my pointy fin.
>Also, a 5 speed conversion seems to make more and more sense to me. I have
>heard of using the Toyota 5 speed the most. What year and model Toyotas
>have the best transmission ratios for the Alpine. When using this
>transmission, what gears are you all using in the rearend? We have two
>different ring and pinions for the car. And, what rpm do you run at 65 mph?
I hope this does'nt offend the folks putting in 5 speeds into thier cars,
but the toyota 5 speed ratios suck.
They are just as bad as the rootes 4 speed, in in many cases worse.
They offer only better final drive ratio (.8 typ) but big jumps between
all gears. The celica supra ratios look best but these are more expensive
and still a rather wide ratio.
The car industry in general seems to have gotten the wrong idea about
the purpose of more gears. They seem to be making taller final ratios
but keeping the ratios very wide.
Even the new 6 speeds in many cars are very wide ratio, with final drive
ratios in the .6 to .75 range.
Maybe when they get to 8 speeds the ratios will tighten up.
Not holding my breath.
Jarrid Gross
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