Well, the 4.56 gears and the 4.77 gears are different from stock in SOME way, right?

Maybe someone has a photo of the parts right next to the stock components so you can see exactly what's different about them.

 

the diameter of the ring gear does not change, it is the diameter of the pinion that does. The ring gear gets "thicker" as the gears get numerically higher to stay in contact with the smaller pinion...

 

now, that would explain it. just by eyeballing it, i didn't see the difference. couldn't we just accomplish the same thing by changing only the pinion and keeping the 4.1 stock ring?

 

Think of it this way:

The speed your pinion is turning is not changed by doing a gear set.

So for example (and these are just for example not actual tooth counts and are an exageration)

If stock gears have

6 teeth on the pinion and 60 teeth on the ring

so it take 10 rotations of the pinion to turn the ring 1 time

Now you put different gears in and now the

pinion still has 6 teeth and the ring gear has 36 teeth

so now it only takes the pinion turning 6 times to make the ring turn 1 time.

So with the new gears the engine only had to turn the pinion 6 times instead of 10 times to do the same amount of work

Also this is the reason you need to recalibrate your speedo. Since the tranny thinks it's turning the pinion 10 times per revolution and its really only turning it 6 times.



And thats just the beginning after that the outer diameter of your tire comes into play.

 

if both diameters are the same, it shouldn't matter how many teeth each has to do the same amount of spinning. yes, you are correct but that doesn't explin what makes it spin faster/easier. i'm confused and if anyone isn't please help.

 

The diameters have nothing to do with it is in the teeth. The gear contact isn't on the outside of the gear it is across the face of the ring gear so the teeth are what matter since for that gear to turn the teeth have to drive it. If you made the ring gear and inch larger in diamter and the exact same tooth configuration your wouldn't change your ratio at all.

So with that said, using my previous figures

Lets say at the same rpm in the same gear the driveshaft turns 50 times. And lets say every time the wheels turn 1 time the ring gear turns 1 time. And every time the wheel turns you move 5 feet.

So with the stock gears with the driveshaft spinning 50 times, it causes the pinion to spin 50 times which turns the ring gear 5 times and the wheels 5 times. So you traveled 25 feet

Now with aftermarket gears the driveshaft spins 50 times, it causes the pinion to spin 50 times which turns the ring gear to turn 8.3 times and then wheels 8.3 times. Which propels the car 41.50 feet.

Lets assume these distances happened in the same amount of time. So the gears get the car up to a faster speed since to travel a longer distance in the same time you have to be moving faster.

I hope this makes sense and once again all my figures are completly made up and do not represent true speeds or ratios of the actual car for the simplicity of the explanation

I guess the best way to sum it up is gears make the same input equal more output.

 

thanks for the example. the only part i don't get is that i thought the 4.56 gears make the driveshaft spin more while the wheels move less. no more hp is created, it just spins the engine to the higher rpms faster, giving you the higher power earlier. i still don't get why the engine can spin/rev faster.

oh wait, i think i answered my own question. if the wheels don't have to turn as much per driveshaft cycle, then it puts less load on the engine, allowing it to spin faster but travelling less distance.

is this correct?

 

the idea of the gears is to get the same amount of power to do more work. More work meaning push the car further with the same power.