Changing individual gear ratios?

[CrankyOldMan]

Originally Posted by Jason@SportsCar

You can pave the way and figure out what other cars internals fit. Seems like a big headache to me, for a very minimal change. What is it you want to do with the car?

It's currently my DD, but I would love to get into autoX, possibly even road courses with SCCA. In the mean time, I drive it like I stole it.

With the xB FD we don't use 1st gear for anything but getting the car moving (about 10'), and when we still ran the 15" wheel/tire combo we rarely used 2nd gear, so that big split was a non issue.

There are multiple stops between home and work/school, so using 1st/2nd regularly is inevitable. I've fantasized about doing the xB FD swap, but it would likely not be until after I've finished my degree in 3-ish years. Yes, this would also likely include a flywheel/clutch/lsd swap to save on labor.

If you want to make the car quicker put in the xB FD. If you want to cut your shift spacing, put in the 6spd. If you need a project that will burn a lot of spare time and money, buy a bunch of Toyota transmissions from a wrecking yard and try building something custom.

I actually LOL'd here. I'm assuming from the xB FD swap thread that when you replace the output shaft, you have to remove all the gears from the original output shaft and re-install them on the xB one. My first impression was that you just plonk the whole xB shaft (gears and all) into the old gearbox. After reading the repair manual, that doesn't seem to be the case.

My big concern about the 6-speed is the whole frame cutting bit. Not really a bolt-on solution, which is primarily what I'm interested in/capable of, even if I pay a shop to do it. Even then, I can't see a shop putting a warranty on that kind of work.

If I had access to those kinds of resources I would gladly devote them to it, but being a full time student, father of 4, and husband, niether time nor money are readily available for these kinds of projects.

Here is the speed difference between the two FDs: http://www.fatboyraceworks.com/gears...raph&Compare=1

I'm not entirely sure what benefit the chart is showing. I get that changing the FD alters the mechanical advantage (less RPM, more torque), but I don't understand how to estimate the improvement in acceleration from the given info.