Driving characteristics after gear swap and locker install

gary.h

gary.h

Active Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Location
Colfax
So I just had some 5.13 gears installed in the JK along with a grizzly locker in the rear. It is a 6 speed and I am now having trouble shifting smoothly. Every car/truck I have ever had was a stick so it is nothing new to me. It seems that I now have to shift real slow or it grinds. Prior to the gear swap, you could bang through gears with ease. Now I have to deliberately shift very slowly through the first 3 gears. I am thinking that it may be that there is now a greater speed differential between the tires and the engine. The power wagon had 4.56 gears and I had to shift that g56 pretty slowly as well. Never had anything with such low gears so I just want to make sure it is normal and if anybody has any tips to improve driveability.

Also, turning in a parking lot with the locker and a manual trans is now a noisy endeavor.
 
Locker will make noise in parking lots, just the way they work. Shifting shouldn't be affected though, I wouldn't think.
 
uglyjeepoffroad said:
Locker will make noise in parking lots, just the way they work. Shifting shouldn't be affected though, I wouldn't think.
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Same here, never heard of shifting problems, unless you have a synchronizer problem, which I doubt. I swapped from 3.54 to 4.56, & shifting a T-18. No difference. Make sure both rear tires
are inflated the same, & 1 not worn more than the other. In other words, both tires need to be a perfect match, to keep the locker from ratcheting. :driver:
 
Maybe a dumb question, but you arent trying to shift at the same speeds as before and are in fact going off engine RPM right?
 
Lol. Not a dumb question. I always shift off rpm and have in fact corrected my speedo already as well. I usually shift anywhere from 2500-3000 rpm as the 3.8 is so gutless. It shifts fine, i just have to shift slower. The sifting speed is similar to mold k5 with sm465. Similar to shifting gears while in 4lo. It is just a different sensation.
 
Sounds more like a synchronizer problem, never really heard of new gears making a difference in shift speed.
 
After I put 6.5:1 transfer case gears in my Samurai, I noticed that I have to shift the transmission slower too or it grinds going into gear. I've gotten used to it, but it sucks when you are trying to shift fast to build speed with a short approach for a hill assault.
 
I have an automatic and 37s so I went with 5:38 gears in my JKU. I know we are comparing apples and oranges here with the tranny, but I didn't notice any difference in shifting. I did reprogram the computer so it knows the 5:38 gears are in there though and adjusts the shift points. Have you programmed yours? Not sure if you have to do that with the 6 speed and not sure it would make a difference anyway but you never know what these computers are doing these days as far rpm matching and what not in manual transmissions.

As far as the locker goes, I have lockers in my '97 TJ and they are noisy as heck in the parking lot. I can turn mine off in the Rubicon. :)
 
@drkelly that is exactly what is happening here. I am able to shift faster by shirt shifting in the first two gears. The new gears allow to still pull pretty good despite shifting at 2k.

@derek jku. I changed the gearing via my programmer before I even left the parking lot.


After driving around for a few days I have already gotten use to it and found ways to deal with it.
 
That is correct. Had 35s on the stock gears and could never use 6th gear. I have already gotten use to the way it drives now.
 
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