What gear ratios are available for our trucks, and in what models to I find which gears.

I've got a 94' 3.9 5sp with the 355: limited slip rear diff

What other options are available?

And I have the "magnum" v6 which is probably the slowest thing i've ever driven. Shouldnt magnum be fast??

 

My truck is a v8 with 3.23s. I believe there were some v8s with 3.55s. I am not sure if 3.92s came in first gens or if that was second gen v6 models.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Pickups arent fast. Especially ones with v6 engines.

 

Yes the Dakotas came with 3.21 (rare), 3.55 (normal, 95%), or 3.90 (rare). The 3.9 was optional on V8's.

You got to remember these are trucks not sports cars. The engines were designed for torque not horsepower. So that is why you think the Magnum is not fast, its a TRUCK ENGINE!



I'm shocked GTXpress you have 3.21 gears with a V8 stock, higher ratios are usually for lower HP/TQ engines that need the RPMs lower for freeway speeds or transmissions that don't that have Over Drive.
Also its 3.21 not 3.23.

 

my v6 has the 3.90:1 ratio. works fine for the little bit of driving i do. 70mph is 2500rpm with 235/75 r15 tires. if i spent alot of time on the highway the 3.55 would probly work better maybe but for around town and in the hills 3.90 is definatly my choice

 

Early dakotas, before overdrive, could be had with a 2.9 ratio, for sure. I will have to look at my old brochures to be sure, but I think the 2.7 was available. But you can't run those ratios with OD.
If you had the 4 cylinder, 3.55 was the minimum and you got a 5spd OD manual trans...

 

It's actually the oppsite. Smaller engine have less power and torque to work with and they typically don't make much torque down low, so they need more cruising RPMs to keep them in the sweet spot. This is why you find a lot of 4cyl trucks with low gears, typically 4.10-4.88, Geo Trackers got 5.13s IIRC.

 

my body lift arrived today and I grabbed a set of 31" xterrains. Trans is starting to make noise now, so going to have to find a spare trans soon.

 

Well whatever it is I got the 3.2x in my truck. Thats what it says under the hood, if I have something different that could be the case too. I know its got no acceleration, and I have no idea how fast it will go. The truck is almost 20 years old and it really starts floating around at 95+. And I gotta really pop that baby to get it to roll the tires.