Frequently Asked Jeep Tech Questions - Tip Top Tech

Over 100,000 people receive each issue of Jp Magazine. And the number of people who read each issue is substantially more. So, it stands to reason that with all these Jeep owners eager to modify their rides and troubleshoot various gremlins, having Hazel's e-mail address printed in the Your Jeep technical Q&A section results in a mountain of e-mails every day. Sometimes it's only a couple dozen. Sometimes it's nearly a hundred. The point is, it's gotten to be way more than one person can handle. That's why we've compiled the top 25 most-asked tech questions we receive. Hopefully these answers will help some of you still waiting for a reply from the swamped Tech Editor.

Gear Grinding
Q I just installed XYZ-sized tires and now my Jeep is a dog. What gear ratio should I run?

A There are a lot of variables, such as your engine type and size, manual or automatic transmission, overdrive or not, driving style, vehicle's primary use, and so on. For starters, you've got to keep in mind that a smaller four-cylinder engine will require more gearing to regain the performance and loss of drivability incurred with larger tires than a larger engine making more power. Also, an automatic transmission without a lockup torque converter will allow the engine to spin roughly 100-150 rpm higher than the same setup with a manual transmission due to slippage in the torque converter. With those caveats, here's a few general gearing guidelines that have worked well for me in the past.