I have a 2002 Tracker 2dr that I recently put 235/75/15 tires on.  The Tracker is manual transmission and husband is now complaining about the gearing.  If I understand correctly the manual tranny trackers have a higher gear ratio than the autos and a lot of people switch to the 5.12 gear.  Am I correct on this?  I have looked at several of the aftermarket places and I seem to only be able to find rock crawler gears.  What do I need to buy to switch over to the 5.12 gears and where is the best place to get them?  Also I have seen several reported gear ratios for the manual (on the tech page I believe it says 4.875, but on posts I have seen lower).  What is the best way to tell what gear ratio you actually have?

Thanks for the help.

Jill

P.S. Thanks everyone for the advice on the lift.  I have decided to go with the OME lift kit from RRO.  Still trying to decide on the OME rear springs or the Rocky Road Hydro shocks.  Any comments are welcome.

ok to figure it out is pretty easy with a manual trans now.. based on the tech specs this is what you will have "MANUAL TRANS ONLY" based on  chevy tracker 15 inch rims and tires

Based on Stock 205/75 15 tires
if yours came with 215/75 15's  stock then just subtract 50rpm for result...
 
if you added bigger tires it wont matter it will still read this way unless you have had the speedo electronically fixed

V-6 version with .802 overdriver "5th gear"
4.625 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3200rpm
4.875 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3400rpm
5.125 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3550rpm

2.0 I-4 version with .777 overdrive "5th gear"
4.625 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3100rpm
4.875 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3300rpm
5.125 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3450rpm

1.6 I-4 version with .795 overdrive "5th gear"
4.625 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3200rpm
4.875 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3350rpm
5.125 gears at 70 mph your RPM should be 3550rpm

if you want to figure it out for yourself or input different rim or tire sizes that it had "factory" use this website http://www.f-body.org/gears/
use the factory size rims and tires to calculate it will be listed on the door jam... and your speedo will still read that way even with the bigger tires you will just be going faster than it says....

im gonna guess you have 4.875 gears in it... eaither way you loose about 200 rpm at 70mph so with mine i was doing 3300rpm at 70  with 205's "27's" now im doing 3100rpm at 70 with 235's "29's its not a big issue no real loss of power but when you go bigger like 31's then my rpm at 70 will be only 2900... nice for street driving but not so fun on the trail when you need that rpm to get you through muck...  but i dont see the point in swapping gears unless you have lost atleast 300rpm or more...

oh and you can use any 96-98 gearset on the 99-03 trackers maybe even more.. hawks stricktly suzuki sells 5.125's  pairs for less than 300 bucks then you would just need to have them set in your 3rd memebers... 12bolt rear 10 bolt front just remeber that everything else seems to be fairly universal after that for gears in the zuks

..... What do I need to buy to switch over to the 5.12 gears.....

You need to change the crownwheel and pinion in both differentials.

Still trying to decide on the OME rear springs or the Rocky Road Hydro shocks.  Any comments are welcome.

If you are not using spacers on the rear, I would stick to the OME springs and shocks. The reason - RR Hydro is an unknown (to me at any rate) source.  If you are using spacers, RR is still supplying DT shocks (I wonder why, or have they just not updated their website?)