Question about axle ratio's.
I keep hearing about 3.55 axle ratio's and limited slip rear ends. Out of
curiosity, I decided to check mine out a while back when I had the truck up in
the air.
My understanding is that to check the ratio you rotate a wheel one complete
revolution and count the number of turns that the drive shaft rotates. Is this
correct?
I have an 88 Dakota 2WD / 3.9 liter engine and the standard 4 speed transmission
W/5th speed overdrive. I had the truck on jack stands with both wheels off the
ground and the drive shaft disconnected.
It is "not" a sure grip rear end either, anyway I don't think so, as only one
wheel turns when rotating the wheel's manually in this position. Although I
don't remember whether the other wheel turned backwards while turning one or the
other. I just remember that the opposite wheel wasn't going forward along with
the one that I was turning. Anyway that is the clue that I am used to looking
for on the older muscle cars.
I checked and counted at least three times and according to the method I used it
would appear that my gear ratio is somewhere in the neighborhood of about 1.65
to 1., the drive shaft would just barely turn past 1 & 1/2 revolutions per one
complete rotation of the wheel, drivers side anyhow, I didn't try turning the
passengers side as I didn't think that it would make any difference. Does this
ratio sound reasonable? Am I doing something wrong?
Satellite Steve
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