Rear axle gear ratio

I guess I did not say what I really ment. Yes you can break the tires easier with 4.10 but 3.00 will spin longer. That is what I ment. I ruined many sets of tires with 460 LTD with 3.00 gears and also 390 Torino with 3.0 Gears. 4.10 will give more torque multiplication to the ground. It will also get the car to take off faster and allow you to pull a heavier load. 3.00 will allow more tire speed and allow the tires to spin longer. I am sorry that I did not elaborate on what I ment. I did not mean to upset the old gaurd on the forum. I appoligize to any one who did not understand my meaning. I did not want to take over this post. Thanks for allowing me to explain. Everything said in the above message is my PERSONAL opinion in my 32 years of working on cars and may be different than your opinion. Thank you again for your time.

I have a '72 LTD with a 429 rebuilt to 466 cid, 750 cfm carb, P235/70R-15s on 15x7 AR wheels; sounds like a similar set-up. Mine has a C6 with 3.25 gears and posi. Both rear wheels break away nicely when floored from a dead stop and spin through about 30 mph. Highway driving is very nice; pulls around 2,600 rpm at 65 mph and gets reasonable economy.

Everything in car design is a trade-off. 4.10s may spin more to start but not spin as much as the car accelerates (like previous guy said). Mine don't spin as aggressively to start (you don't generate a cloud of thick smoke and feel like the tires are going to shred) but they spin longer and you get good driveability. Personally I don't like tall gears. Trade-offs are too severe for what you get. Only real advantage is better acceleration 0<100. In return you get 3,500 rpm at 70 mph (motor works WAY too hard), horrible fuel economy (7 mpg vs 14 on highway matters), and very limited top-end (maybe 100-110 unless you have some really high rpm set-up).

I have 3:50s in my Galaxie. (Automatic, 14" wheels/tires).


Fine around town, but gets a little annoying at 65 and up speeds.

Rule of thumb, 14" wheels/tires and 4:10 gears:

RPM=speed divided by 2 X 100.

A good running bone stock 460 should murder the rear tires simply by hitting the loud pedal good and hard regardless of axle ratio. 2 things come to mind in your case. 1st and most likely cause would be a camshaft that has a profile more condusive to making top end power than it is to producing low end torque. If that is the case your car's off the line performance will be greatly enhanced by a torque converter with a higher stall speed. A rear axle ratio change would also help, but highway driveability will suffer somewhat. The other possibility is that the torque converter is defective and not allowing engine revs to climb when you jump on it. This is kind of a rare occurence but I have seen it happen a couple of times. What are your camshft specs?
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