59 gears question...again
 

Ok guys, so finally got back to the 59 this weekend, and can i say it was wonderful...anyways, got the engine ready to pull and decided to mess around with the drive train and electrical abit. I found a tag on the frontend, probably the first to remain on any rig my dad owned. So I was pretty impressed and excited. It reads 3 : 92, so assuming this is original??? the front end is a Dana 44 in 3 : 92 ratio. This would make the rearend a 9" 3 : 91 correct, because you guessed it, no tag on the rearend.

I would like to go with a higher gear ratio and would like some opinions on what gears to move upto. This f100 will be used mostly as my driving vehicle(highway and town) and hunting rig. Some pulling may be in the future but nothing really heavy. It is powered by a 390.

So please advise on both: possible gears on rearend and changing my gear ratio. Thanks in advance.

What tranny do you have behind your 390?

Mtdorf; If the rear is still factory it will be 3.89:1 Thats the only gears offered by Ford for the F100 4x4's. (in 1959)
Thats a .03 difference compared to the F250's .01 difference between front and rear axles. Thats why these trucks don't like hard surfaces while in 4 wheel drive. Kind of puts a bind on the transfer case.

Thanks for the info. I am running a four speed manual tranny with these gears and it seems to over rap the engine when on the highway. I want to be able to run highway speeds comfortably, not really looking for 100 + speeds. I am looking to make this my traveling vehicle as well as hunting. I was thinking of putting 373s or 350s under it. Any thoughts or advice.

Thanks for your replies.

One of the easiest ways to go is taller tires. I'm running 255 85r 16's
With your gears and these tires, you would be running 60-65 at 2500 rpm.
Just a thought!
Good luck in your quest!

^^Best tire size ever made. I'm running a non-OD tranny with 4.10 gears (and those sized tires) and I am able to cruise at 65. I've even made it to 75! Yikes... In the end I believe that tires will be cheaper than to re-gear two diffs. Plus if you are hunting with it you probably don't want your first gear to end up being too fast.

Thanks for the advice. I will be running
275R75
16s so that should help. I was running a smaller tire before.
I will let
You know how it all goes together soon.

Thanks for the update! Now maybe we can convince you to post up some pictures?

Just as soon as i can figure out my wife's camera...man things just don't work like they used too. That's why i like the 59, pretty simple and straight forward LOL

Isn't that the truth. I open the hood on my Powerstroke and think, alright there is some engine left in this thing. Open the hood on my 2004 Ranger and think, well if I had to guess I would say that this thing is powered by plastic and wires.

Then there is the 59 Ford. Open it's hood. Engine. Battery. Perfect

Well I ran into a little hiccup, seems when the engine went it really went. Found a hole in the block...so now a nice paper weight. finally figured out the camera but can't seem to get it to download on the puter... pics coming soon.