I'm building a 302 for my '83. It has the C6 and stock 3.55 gears. I'm wanting to run 33s. 4.11 gears ain't in my budget currently and I'm not even gonna attempt to re gear it myself. I was wondering if a 2000 RPMA stall speed converter will help any? I want good street manners and good off road capability. The current engine is siezed up and it's never gonna spin over again and I'm not sure I'll be able to get my converter back off the junk engine. It's too much work in my opinion. It'll eventually get 4.11s front and rear. I don't want a useless pavement pounder that will struggle on the smallest obstacle. I want a good trail truck.

 

the stall speed converter will do nothing positive for the trucks gearing
You'll just be at a higher RPM when the trans engages
I'd remove the front shaft and find another pumpkin for it
Lifting the truck is expensive in many ways, so is installing bigger tires
One axle at a time swap gears
Your 83 should have a 9 inch rear end that is real easy to do a gear swap on

 

It has a 8.8 oddly enough. I'm gonna run 31s for now. It'll eventually get a 2.5" BDS leveling kit and 33s. I'm hoping I can reuse my stock converter.

 

A 8.8 is a little harder to do a gear change on, but they are so common, you might just be able to find one with the ratio you want. 4.10 should do
Yes, your stock trans should hack the mission

 

New gears themselves are only 150 bucks on a steal
Having somebody install and set them up is 600-1000
That's what I charge, I set up Moab rock crawler Jeeps for about 600 plus parts for friends all the time
All it takes is a dial indicator on a magnetic base and a digital caliper to measure the pinion depth and the shim thicknesses
Rough job for a beginner without some guidance on your first couple

 

I made dummy bearings for Jeep dana 44's and 35's
I have a few sets of the ford dummy bearings
Those make it so you don't ruin a hundred bucks worth of carrier bearings getting the setup correct