best rear gears for a daily drivin 302

I'm putting a 302 in my 71 maverick with a c 4. i will probably put a aod in it too. i don't know what gears i got now but what would be good on gas but not lose much speed. and what vehicles can i find it in?

 

your car probably has a 2.79 or 3.00 stock. if you go AOD you have the advantage of overdrive which is great for gas mileage. just leaving it as-is would be your best bet for economy. or maybe something in the 3.20-.50 rance if you want a little more pep and not too much sacrifice.

richmond sell brand new 8'' gears for less then $200 and summit has 'em for $125

 

Newtoford is right but with overdrive you could go as tall as 3.55

 

ok and what if i decide to keep the c4? if i do get the aod how much is it to get the drive shaft shortend? do you jus take it to a machine shop and have them take however much off one end? about how much does that cost cause i could probably go do it myself at the local college if thats the case.

 

which

 

which has a lower cruizing rpm, high or low gears?

 

With 3:55s' you can get away with the 3 spd and still cruise on the thruway at 65 mph with out revving the engine too high.With the aod you could go 3:80s' no problem but mileage will suffer a little with the steeper gears either way in stop and go traffic.It will have great pick up though.A gear change in these cars really brings em to life.Good luck.

 

with the aod, do i have to do anything to the shifter on the steering wheel?

 

Numerically smaller gears give you low cruise rpm.Like 2:79 to 1 gives you around 2000 rpm at 65 mph. 3:55s' will give you higher cruise rpm say around 2600 rpm at 65 mph.Numerically higher gears give you more rpm at speed and numerically lower gears give you less rpm at speed.

 

Get an aftermarket floor shifter that is for an aod set up.

 

is that the only way? id like to keep it on the collum

 

i think u just need a new crossmember. the shaft is the same length i believe

 

I havent done an aod swap in our cars but I dont think you will be able to use the stock column since it doesent have enough range of movement for you to be able to select all the gears manually.IDIDIT makes steering columns for aod swaps into street rods/customs.Weather or not they have an application that would cover a mav/comet I dont know.

 

thanks for the info everyone im gonna try to go with the aod but not sure how that'll work out. how would it work without the kickdown linkage?

 

i think AODs use a TV cable attached to the throttle instead of a kickdown rod