Transmission

Asked by GuruXYWQN Oct 08, 2018 at 09:56 AM about the 1976 Chevrolet C/K 20

Question type: General

I am planning on buying a 1976 Chevrolet c20. It has a 3 speed manual
transmission. The owner says that it's not best to take it down the highway at
70, since 55mph is about all it can do. He says it's because the truck is geared
very low. Is there any other reason for the vehicle to be acting like this?

1 Answer

103,185

Do you know what the rear end gearing is? If it has really "short" gears (3.73, 4.10, etc.) and no OD, then highway cruising is going to be a challenge. There may be a metal tag on rear axle or pumpkin with gear ratio stamped on it, or you can manually spin rear tires with vehicle jacked up and count revolutions of drive shaft and tires. In short, "short" gears were not meant for today's highway speeds, they were meant for heavy load hauling. If you want to make this tuck more of a cruiser find a tranny with an OD or swap out rear end gears for something "taller" like 2.73 (just don't expect the same jack rabbit start with those gears tho.)

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