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Original Message
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| Good Gearing |
| By Travis Miller - 02/18/2001 6:07:34 PM; IP 205.188.199.182 |
Over the years I have seen many High Performance Fords. When I look at a Ford I try to absorb as much data about the car as possible. That includes looking at the car's data plate if at all possible. One thing that use to really upset me was the fact that very seldom did I see an early 390, 406, or 427 Galaxie or Fairlane with a good gear and a "posi" rearend listed on the data plate. Almost everyone had a 3.00, 3.25, or 3.50 open rearend. I thought to myself, why in the world would anyone order a special built, high performance car and forget to order a good rearend.
A couple years ago i was talking to a retired line mechanic from a Ford dealer. In the conversation I brought up my pet peeve about the lack of good gears in hi-po Fords. He told me that there were a lot of good rearends put in the hi-po Fords. The reason they didn't show up on the data plate is because they were usually dealer installed. He said that years ago in the 60's he had installed many 4.57's with Detroit lockers in new FE Fords. That way the factory did not have to stock lower gears and "posi" units. I ask him about the early Equa-loc set-ups and he said they were not a real strong unit. This rearend policy changed somewhat when the 428CJ and Traction-loc came out in the late 60's.
So now when I see a restored hi-po 390/406/427 FE, I picture the dealer putting in a good gear set when it was new. And a good gear is what an FE needs to perform well. |
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