In reality there is no high gear in a standard transmission . When you you shift into high gear the transmission input shaft is locked into the output shaft resulting in a 1:1 ratio . In other words the crank and the drive shaft turn together as a single unit . There are over drives out there such as the infamous 4 + 3 that was available in the 84 vette . There are also other add on type units but I have no idea what they cost .The 700 and 200r are becoming very popular now due to the fact that when you run on the highway you can keep the engine out of the higher rpm ranges while cruising . In the long run the longevity of your engine is greatly enhanced .

geo

there are some overdrive units the mount behind your transmission

This is not meant to be argumentative, GOD knows I don't know enough about this to argue about it. The magazine I am refering to is the April edition of Corvette Fever and the article is on page 59. It states that this company is making a beefier M22 case and it lists another company who is making gear sets for it.
The gear sets are:
Model ... First ... Second ... Third ... Fourth
M22 ... 2.199 ... 1.640 ... 1.274 ... 1.000
M22W ... 2.559 ... 1.752 ... 1.366 ... 1.000
M22X ... 2.199 ... 1.506 ... 1.174 ... 1.000
M22Y ... 2.199 ... 1.506 ... 1.000 ... 0.859
They indicate that the M22Y is an over-drive set up but could do with better first to third ratios.
Anyhow, that isn't even my .02 cents, I had to borrow it from Corvette Fever.

|UPDATED|2/21/2003 1:31:12 PM|/UPDATED|

Hey Glenn ,excellent info !

geo

Glenn,
Can you list the name of the companies mentioned in the April 2003 Corvette Fever magazine regarding an overdrive transmission?
Thanks.

Auto Gear Company www.autogear.net
medatronics corp. (gearzone) www.gearzone.net
original patrs group www.originalpartsgroup.com
Ron's transmission service 714-537-8028

buy a set - up and let me know how it is

4webers said: In reality there is no high gear in a standard transmission . When you you shift into high gear the transmission input shaft is locked into the output shaft resulting in a 1:1 ratio . geo

When I saw that article in corvette fever, I wondered how they got an overdrive gear for fourth. The only thing I can think of is they put the OD gear where third was and invert the shifter arm so you engage 1:1 at the top of the shifter H-pattern and the gearset at the bottom of the shifter H-pattern. Joe

glenns said: If what you are saying is you replace third with fourth and put the new gear in as fourth, sounds like you would lose a lot of RPMs going from 2nd to 3rd. ??? I think I would leave 1st, 2nd and 3rd alone and just change fourth to the new ratio of 1:1.2

In the automatics, 3rd is always a 1:1. I can't see why it would be a problem for a stick to do so.
I would think that 2nd should be changed to be right between the ratio of first and the ratio for 3rd, to make it an even step up.