Inliners International Forums General Discussion Drive Train ring and pinon swap anyone done it?

Howdy folks,newbie in georgia with a bone stock 57 chevy truck,bone stock healthy 235 spinnin liek a top under the hood. Anyway,I have found someone sellin a ring and pinon kit,its a 3.38 to 1 ratio, anyone made a swap similar to this? how did it run?

Patrick's sells all the stuff you need for that job.

It works well if you drive the 'highway' a lot.

Good luck, John M.......

I put these in both my '37 1/2 ton(converted to 55-59 open driveline), and my '59 1/2 ton Napco 4wd conversion(both ends of course). The difference is certainly noticeable(more so in the '59 because of the taller tires) but don't expect miracles. You will probably get 7-10 more mph in high at your cruising rpm(about 2200 rpm for me). A better option is an overdrive tranny. They are getting hard to find though. With either the Borg-Warner or Saginaw, and your stock 3.90 rear end, you effectively have a 2.73 rear end ratio in overdrive. You can also split the gears with the overdrive(but first w/od is almost identical to second wo/od). Second to second w/od, to third wo/od is handy though when pulling a heavy load. I think the ultimate in this respect is a Saginaw four speed with the overdrive unit from a three speed grafted on the back end of it. Going to try to get one of those installed in my '37(presently has SM-420 in it).