so I'm on the fence about which gears to go with

[jeep-N-montero]

I have access to a 95 SR with 4.63 gears and a 2001 sport XLS with 4.90 gears, my goal is to stick with 33x10.50 km2's as this will be mostly an expo setup. The 4.63's would be the easiest route as I can simply bolt them up, the 4.90's I can have swapped for $150 per axle. And I do not want to hear how so and so runs 35's with stock gears, because they are the ones who live at low elevation and have never taken their rig to places like Moab.

 

[Clem]

I have access to a 95 SR with 4.63 gears and a 2001 sport XLS with 4.90 gears, my goal is to stick with 33x10.50 km2's as this will be mostly an expo setup. The 4.63's would be the easiest route as I can simply bolt them up, the 4.90's I can have swapped for $150 per axle. And I do not want to hear how so and so runs 35's with stock gears, because they are the ones who live at low elevation and have never taken their rig to places like Moab.

I would go with the 4.90's. That is my plan anyway.

I would like to run 255/85R16 (33.3") - 33x10.50R15 (32.8") - stock 265/70R15 (29.7").

The 255's are about 12% taller than stock (265/70R15), the 33's are about 10% taller than stock and 4.90's are about 15% increase over the 4.27's. Going from 4.27 to 4.63 is about 8% increase (so it seems not a large enough increase). My thought is that going to the 4.90's will get me closer to the SR (94-96) gearing. Might also give better acceleration and towing ability (not that I have anything to tow, LOL). Might be flawed logic, but that's my thinking anyway.

HTH,

Clem

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I would go with the 4.90's. That is my plan anyway.

I would like to run 255/85R16 (33.3") - 33x10.50R15 (32.8") - stock 265/70R15 (29.7").

The 255's are about 12% taller than stock (265/70R15), the 33's are about 10% taller than stock and 4.90's are about 15% increase over the 4.27's. Going from 4.27 to 4.63 is about 8% increase (so it seems not a large enough increase). My thought is that going to the 4.90's will get me closer to the SR (94-96) gearing. Might also give better acceleration and towing ability (not that I have anything to tow, LOL). Might be flawed logic, but that's my thinking anyway.

HTH,

Clem

Those are the same numbers I came up with last night but was still unsure which way to go.

 

[Toasty]

And I do not want to hear how so and so runs 35's with stock gears, because they are the ones who live at low elevation and have never taken their rig to places like Moab.

Just get the 4.90's, yeah so and so takes their Montero on 35's and stock gears to easy trails in medium elevation places like Moab (4,000-5,500 ft elevation) without any issues. But we just did Rubicon (6,000-7,000 ft elevation) and Dusy (8,400-10,000 ft elevation) on 35's and stock gears and let me tell you it wasn't the 4.63's that kicked our asses on Thompson hill it was the 2:1 transfer case. If you're just going to be trailing around on 33's you'll be fine especially with a 3.5 DOHC, but gears are essential in my opinon. The only reason we did the Sierra Challenge on stock gears is that we ran out of time building the truck before the trip and that won't happen again. To be fair to stock gears though we never ran into any torque converter stalling or overheating on the Rubicon and that was fully loaded with 2 weeks worth of gear and 3 of us in the truck.


Trailing and driving around hilly towns high elevation or otherwise, 4.90's are your friend.

4 Wheeling and or heavily loaded expeditions are where you need the transfer case gears, your options there are Marks4WD for mitsu gears, then Jeep Rubicon transfer case, Atlas, and any of the 6 bolt round 23 spline mid/short shaft cases.

 

[eurosonic]

4.90s

 

[JamesW]

I went from 4.636 to 4.875 and the difference wasn't that big to be honest,so i'd go whole hog and stick the 4.9's into yours and be done with it,otherwise you'll be wondering what it would be like with the 4.9s

The axle swaps aren't too hard to do either,I swapped the whole axle rather than the diffs themselves. The tricky part about the rear is the sheer weight of it,and the tricky bit about the front is getting the vac pipes on right,and splitting the ball joints can be a bit tricky if they are old.

We did removed the front from my shogun in a few hours,maybe 3,that was a learning curve,and the ball joints were stupidly hard to split. We got the front one off and the new one into my pajero in around 4 hours,so it's not a bad job,but it does need 2 people

 

[4D55 Performance]

I use this website to best answer any gearing changes. From my calculations you will atleast want 4.90 gears if you are running 35" tires. It would be recommended to go with 5.29 gears, but they are very pricey and require several mods. So it looks like the 4.90's are your best option. With the high altitude here in Utah you will want those lower gears.

http://www.accuautoparts.com/calculator.php

 

[jeep-N-montero]

Bump for some good info.

 

[Mrknowitall]

If you have access to either, and you're already doing the wrenching.... definitely go as deep as you reasonably can- the only place you might ever think twice about 4.90's, is if you're ripping along the freeway way faster than you should.

 

[Toasty]

I have to agree there, Montero Sport XS came with 3.5 SOHC 4.90 and 31's and that truck has a good feel to it. NOW i am currently working on my Gen 2.5 so i put a set of stock 31's on so as not to burn up my 35's, i'm at 31's and 4.90's and let me tell you this is how the truck is supposed to feel. It's always at the right RPM and pulls power like it should, it's great. Makes me want 5.29's for turning my 35's, I figure the gear change for the US market was more forced upon the Montero rather than engineered into it due to emissions standards (lower RPM per miles traveled = fewer emissions).

This is a guess but based on what i've seen from Mitsubishi and what's equipped over seas.