Could someone please tell me if a 2 series gear can be put into a 3 series carrier using a spacer? Or is it the other way around?

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88'Camaro
305 TBI

 

I used my 2 series carrier (2.73open ) , installed a powertrax lockright locker , and 3.73 gears made to fit on a 2 serires differential. See, here's the deal, with the 2.73 carier the pinion is cosiderably biger because it has to travle only 2.73 rotations , so.... when you put the 3.73's in you are using a smaller pinion , now you can't just expect it to mate up perfectly , so you need to buy a kit SPECIFICALY designed for this application or do the math. Either way you will need a ring gear that is thicker to compensate for the smaller pinion---hope this helps .....later

 

The 2-series gear wont work on a 3-series carrier. You can use a 3-series gear on a 2-series carrier, but it will need a spacer to work. There are also a few companies that make a higher ratio for the 2-series carrier, but I dont know of any that make a lower ratio for the 3-series carrier.

 

Think about how gears work. In order to have a lower numbered ratio, you have to change not only the teeth count, but also the ratio of the diameter of the gears. But, since the ring gear has he same diameter in a given type of rear end regardless of the ratio, the only thing that can change is the pinion gear diameter. As the numerical ratio increases the pinion must get smaller. So the teeth of the ring gear must be moved over closer and closer to the centerline of the pinion. As they go from lower ratios to higher the factory increases the thickness of the ring gear up to a point, then at some arbitrary ratio, they decide to change the location of the flange on the carrier that the ring gear mounts to, moving it closer to the pinion. In the ones in our cars this step occurs at 3.23; everything below that ("2-series") has the flange farther from the pinion, 3.23 and above ("3-series") have the flange closer to the pinion. That's why you can buy a 3-series gear that's extra thick to fit on a 2-series carrier, or a spacer to make up the distance; but the pinion teeth would hit the carrier flange, leaving negative clearance for the ring gear, if you tried to use a 2-series gear with a 3-series carrier.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."

 

Thanks for the replys
The reason i wanted to know is because i'd like to get gears now, but would like to be able to use them with the SLP take-off which i'd like to purchase in the future. If i get the 3-series gears now and use a spacer, i wont have to shell out the cash for another set of gears when i get the posi unit. Thanks again