Series Gearing

landyboots said:

Hi all. Looking for some advice on my series 3 SWB V8. It is fitted with Santana axles and I was told by the vendor that it had an Ashcroft overdrive transfer box at some point. It sits on 33 inch tyres. My problem is that I am not getting very much top speed out of each gear. It runs out of grunt very quickly going through the gears. I suspect that either the ratios of the diffs, transfer box or gearbox along with the tall tyres are causing my woes. Do any of you know if Santana used the same diff ratios as Land rover.....or do any of you run similar setups with a series converted V8?

Thanking everyone for any input.

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tottot said:

Start with the basics, is the throttle opening fully as you say it run's out of grunt very quickly. [ not a problem with any V8 I have driven. ]

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Colthebrummie said:

Silly question, I know but it's not stuck in low ratio is it?

Col

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300bhp/ton said:

You'll need to provide some numbers, such as what sorts of terminal speeds in each gear. Do you have a tacho/rev counter too?

How many levers are there? And what positions (photo maybe).

33" tyres are tall and will make gearing longer, it may have had something done to the gearing to bring this back more inline to stock, but I'm doubting it.

Have you used low range?

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tottot said:

When the red stick is pulled back to the seat box the vehicle will be in low box.

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tottot said:

When the red stick is pulled back to the seat box the vehicle will be in low box.

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300bhp/ton said:

Low range is definitely pulling the read lever towards the seat box. This will also be putting it in 4wd. Obviously we can't tell you if it is working correctly, but it would be might odd to be reversed.

With the red lever forward towards the engine, it should be in 2wd (rwd). Pushing the yellow lever down should engage 4wd in High Range (for use on slippery surfaces only, not tarmac). To return to 2wd you pull the red lever towards you to engage low range, the yellow lever will jump up when you do this. Moving the red lever forward will return it to 2wd.

You can check the operation of the red lever, jack up one front wheel with the hand brake off (on level ground, chock the rear wheel). In 2wd you will be able to spin the front wheel. Pull the red lever to put it in 4wd low and you should no longer be able to rotate the front wheel while the other 3 wheels are on the ground.

N.B. This assumes you haven't got freewheeling front hubs fitted, or if you do that they are locked in.

There should be a very noticeable difference between high and low range. Low 3rd will give similar performance (spread of speed) to High 1st.

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