my car has the 2.73 rear in it. weak. my first real performance thing i want to do, as i am going to just drive the L98 stock till it pops, is to go with a 3.73 rear gear.

I've checked ebay and come up with this place "justdifferentials" selling made in USA for $375 made for the 2 series carrier. i'd just pull my diff and take it to my uncle's place since he sets up axles all the time.

are there better deals out there than $375 for USA made gears? i do not want some chinese crap that will implode upon hard driving, but i'm trying to be as easy on the wallet as possible while keeping our manufacturing guys employed.

Yea, but the rest of the D36 will explode...

If it was me, I would save up the $$ and get a D44 with stock 3.45 gears. I know it's not cheap, but it sure as hell is more durable.

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Why is that? The D36 is more durable than people give it credit for, and he has a stock L98.

Matthew

I get the feeling he is taking step one towards more power and performance.

I am just suggesting he does it right the first time... then never have to worry again.

Im not a 3.73 DANA 36 fan, 3.54 is as high as id take it.

You must have a convertible do you Patgizz? If its a Coupe, they never came with 2.73 gears.

A quick Google search using a Richmond part number found this which is a little less money. You may do better if you do some more searching, good luck.

http://www.performancedepot.com/pdall ... 0&PHPSESSID=1d7501a848ad6

I tend to agree with Casey about ratio but for a different reason, 3.73's are pretty steep especially for an L98, many guys are happy with 3.07, I would think 3.54 will give you plenty of gear.

thanks for the advice.

i'll look into the 3.54 as well. i'll also re-check the RPO code because it was 10+ years ago that i looked up the gears.

this is how i see things going:

phase 1 - gears
phase 2 - sticky tires
phase 3 - autocross

i do not plan on more power for a long time, the car has 110k miles and i'm not tossing more power into a relatively high mile engine, nor am i replacing or rebuilding a good running one.

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I remember from the other forum a number of both L98 and LT1 owners who blew their 3.54/3.73 rear ends with stock motors and street tires. OTOH, there are those who have had no problems. Toss of the coin, I guess...

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Its a 2 series carrier, youve got 3 options, 1 and 2 are the two thick ring gear options, 3.54 and 3.73, the other is a complete unit, 3.07 or 3.31. The 3.31 will be very hard to come by.

Im not a fan of the thick gear options cause its not the ring that is most likely to break, its either the guts, or twist the pinion off.

No L98 coupes ever came with a 2.73 rear end that i know of, only convertibles did. Coupes either had 2.59 (RPO GM1) or 3.07 (RPO G92)

Its electro etched into the underneath of the diff housing.

the 3.73 is as far as one can go with a D36... it's also just way farther than I would consider.

You are going to add sticky tires and that will not help one bit.

The 3.07 gear was the optional automatic gear... 3.31 was in the D44, I thought, and not in the D36.

The D35 has a 7.5" ring gear, the D44 an 8.5" ring gear. It's also bigger and stouter in every respect.

If it was me, I would consider getting a 6spd car. It would be better on the autocross course. Just something to think about.

If you can't find that, the tooth count is on the ring gear. Or you can just count it, and divide the two numbers.

Sticky tires, sticky clutch, and dumping the clutch on a manual trans are what break rear ends. Jumping the car can also, but I don't think that's in your plans.

A few gear shops I spoke with said Richmond gears are noisy. I don't know if that's just an old wive's tale or not, but don't be surprised if you hear it.

eww, its worse than i thought. 2.59's

i do not want a manual. my work truck is a manual, and after climbing ladders or stairs all day and having to drive a stick home from the job, i want to just hop in the car and let my left leg have a break. if i want to shift gears fast i have the turbo grand prix.

i do not drag race this car. my belair is faster and more fun for that, and i would never try to launch the vette on sticky tires. i want to stick around corners, not stick in a straight line.

now i just need to decide to go 3.54 or 3.73 - as of right now i am leaning to the 3.54. my dad's suburban has 3.73 with the same 700r4 tranny and with the fairly steep first gear, you don't go very far before it shifts

Ok, by sticky tires I thought you meant drag radials.

Never mind then, put some gears in and call it done. I would avoid going too short on a 700R4 though, 3.54 is more than I'd want, but then the 3.07 is a little too tall. Calculate your new highway rpm to make sure there's no surprises. That suburban has taller tires than your vette too, so 3.73s on it may be equivalent to 3.54s on yours.