I have a 95 4Runner with an auto tranny on 33x10.5 Mt's. I'm thinking about putting new gears in. Will they make much of a difference, is it worth the money? Whats the best set to go with, 4.88's, 5.29's or 5.71's?

 

for auto i heard 5.29 i think you have 4.88 stock

 

I thought about it, but then decided it wasn't worth it. It's a DD and all, but still, I didn't think it gave that much of a power loss.

 

I have a 5spd SR5 (31" stock.) which means I had 4.56 gears. I put a 285/60/18 (about 33") and it felt like a dog. I changed to 4.88s and it felt much better.

I would say that YES, you will notice a huge difference.

You dont' say if you have a 5spd or auto, the auto's came with 4.88s and you'd want to step to 5.13s

 

I vote for 5.71s for that unless you're going to do a 3.4 swap then 5.29s will be good.

 

Yeah, it's an auto tranny. So the conscious is 5.29's?

 

I would go with 5.29 but if you ever plan on going to a bigger tire, I would just get 5.71 gears and be done with it.

 

You may want to look at the axle code and see if it came with 4.88's if so you wont gain much by going to a 5.29 but if your 4.10 or 4.56 then you will see a difference. Its worth mentioning that with 5.29's and 33's your speedo will be off by a considerable percentage but you will be plenty happy with the performance especially in the hill climbing area. If indeed you have 4.88's then you cannot go to any ratio with out changing complete thirds as the factory 4.88 thirds cannot accept any other brand or style of gear other than the OEM 4.88's.

edit.. looking at your sig I would say if your not running 4.88's then you should definitely put in some 5.29's to help that poor critter out lugging around all that accessory weight. I know my 90 xcab with bumpers,sliders,dual cases and a winch tips the scale at over 5k so Im sure you runner is at or beyond that.

 

Also the automatics have very high top gear so you would still be able to cruise all day on the hwy.

But I was thinking. If his ride came stock with 31" tires and 4.88gears wouldnt going from that to 33" tires and 5.29gears put the speedo pretty close?

 

yes. If he does have 488 then going to 529 and 33" tires yields a small 3% error.
When the speedo says 70 he'd be really doing about 68.

 

Great info! With my current gears and 33's my speedo is off about 10%. When it says 50, I'm actually going 55. Where is the axle code? I looked on the axle and didn't see it.

 

On your drivers side door sill.
Under the latch, has your vin, paint code and axle code.

 

I just took a pic of the entire thing. Is it part of the vin or one of the other sets of numbers?

 

It's the G144, "A" stands for axle and "TM" stands for transmission. And yes that is the 4.88 gears. Go with 5.71s if you want lots of power, go with 5.29s if you want it like the stock dog...

 

G144 = 4.88

http://toyota.off-road.com/toyota/ar....jsp?id=274535

Those who said going from 4.88 to 5.29 (or any other one step change) haven't done it. Going from 4.56 to 4.88 made a HUGE difference in my truck.

Three things:
Your 4.88 diffs are not regearable. You're gonna have to buy entire third members (would be a good time to do an elocker!)

IMHO, the autos are undergeared from the factory (31 + 4.88). I would go 5.71 for 33's so you can actually use the overdrive.

You can't use a calculator to see how much the speedo will be off. That has to assume that the speedo was accurate from the factory, and in my experience, that isn't true.

 

Good point on the rear diff, but isn't the front diff regearable TC?

 

You can do a 5 speed swap and keep your original 4.88 gears. You would be geared perfect for 33s then. Depending on what gears you get and who you have install them, ud be running about the same price as the swap.

Just an option...

 

now that you bring it up, I'm not sure about the front ... I would assume they have the offset pinion too, but I don't remember exactly (mine had 4.56, so I didn't have to worry about it on mine)

 

Was this one step change on a manual or auto trans.? I'm just wondering if the type of trans. would determine how much of a change it would make.

 

I have a auto 4runner on 35's withe a true track in front and a spool in the rear and i only have 529's. i have plenty of power.