4.111 gears ?

[legacy94]

this is my first post(i believe) and it's just a general question.i have a 94 legacy gt wagon 5spd 4wd,it has 4.111 gears.what exactly are those gears good for? are they for mainly faster top speeds or what can you tell that i'm not exactly that knowledgable about stuff like this.

[THAWA]

Hmm, this is probably a drivetrain topic.

First take a look at this: http://science.howstuffworks.com/gear-ratio.htm

Now that you're an expert on what gear ratios are we can figure out what the need for different ratios is. Looking at your individual gear ratios, 1st-5th we see that 1st is short, and 5th is tall (short meaning there is a higher ratio, and tall meaning there is a lower ratio). What's the reason for this? So that when you're in 1st gear you can make use of the power to accellerate yourself very quickly. It in essence multiplys the engine's power. The reason 5th is tall is because when you're driving at a higher speed you don't want the engine to be bouncing off the rev limiter. The same applys with your final drive ratio, 4.111. It effectively multiplys the engines power output to allow you to accellerate faster. A shorter ratio can be good for top speeds if your engine doesn't make a lot of power, but if you were going for theoretical top speed then you'd want a taller ratio. The taller the better.

[THAWA]

Sorry, if none of that makes any sense.

[legacy94]

Sorry, if none of that makes any sense.

it's starting to sink in.so it's looking like my gears would be more for top speed then say for towing or extreme off-roading.no rock-crawling for me i guess

[THAWA]

Eh, sort of. In our cars yes they will be better for top speed, but in a car with a lot more power you'd come closer to the limits of the rev range. And a shorter ratio would be better for rock crawling. That's what transfer cases do, they make add another multiplier into the mix. So say you were using an RX tranny. Lets take first gear as an example. Its ratio is 3.545, the final drive ratio is 3.700, and the low range ratio is 1.196. When you're in hi/normal range your effective ratio is 3.545*3.700 or 13.117. Throw the low range in there and now your effective ratio is 3.545*3.700*1.196 or 15.687. That's quite a jump.

Of course I could be completely wrong about all this, but I'm fairly sure it's accurate.

[evolutionmovement]

Your 4.11's are one of the lowest ratios Subaru has (besides 4.44). It's best for accelerating or towing/pulling stuff, but worse for gas mileage and possibly top speed as you run higher rpms in every given ratio. Plus 1st must be damn short! My 3.7 final drive allows me to hit about 35 in 1st and somewhere around 170 or so in 5th (theoretically @ redline, but I have nowhere near the power to hit that) while your theoretical top speed would be lower.

Steve

[dzx]

first and second are really short.