Fatal Fax

Can someone explain what gear ratios mean? I'm looking at them on the Chevy site but knowing little about cars I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

Gear ratios
First gear 2.96
Second gear 1.62
Third gear 1.00
Fourth gear 0.68
Fifth gear —
Reverse 2.14
Final drive ratios 3.63
Case material aluminum

What does this all mean?

osmose

Gear ratios are the number of rotations of one gear wheel compared to another wheel. think about your bicycle;
when you first start out you are in a low gear, so you rotate the pedal which translates into rotaing the back tire at about a 2:1 ratio (2 rotations of your pedal translates to one rotation of the tire).
Have you ever tried to start pedaling in a "high gear" it's nearly impossible. That is because the ratio is now about 1:4 which means that each rotaion of the pedal translates into 4 rotaions of the tire. Your legs on the pedal can only produce so much torque, and not enought to get you going at a 1:4 ratio.

I could explain more , but i'm not going to here's a link.... READ.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission.htm

wesmanw02

Exactly what Osmose said. Gear ratios are simply a way to describe the size of a gear in a transmission. The higher the number, the "shorter" the gear; the lower the number, the "taller" the gear is.

Basically gears in a transmission are used to allow the engine to connect to the wheels at different speeds. The shorter (high number) ratios are used in low speeds, they allow the engine to turn much faster than the wheels, resulting in better acceleration from a stop or slow roll.
The higher gears (numerically lower ratio number, such as .68) are used at higher speeds, such as when on the highway. The car can travel at speed while the engine speed (RPM) stays low, in order to save fuel and engine wear.

Check out the link that Osmose posted from Howstuffworks.com, it will teach you all you need to know; if you have any more questions feel free to post them up here

Fatal Fax

Thanks guys. I'm reading up on it. I dont know much about cars (never really thought much about them) till now. Thanks again!