Hey yall! I know you're tired of me asking about speed with the Sammy, but I have one more question. I have near stock 28" tires with stock gearing (T-case and dif's), and according to a gearing calculator I used at www.lepayne.com/gears.html, I lose 7% percent of my power because I'm 2 inches over the stock tires. I can currently reach a max speed of 65 and I was wondering if changing my t-case gears to 4.1 would help me reach a higher max speed? Or would it even decrease my max speed? I guess there is the other option though, that I can just be satisfied that I have one of the best off-roading vehicles and accept the fact that I will never reach out-of-town freeway speeds of 75 mph like a wimpy car! Thanks again!

Run that calculator again and plug in the reduction in high range
you get with the 4:1's. I think you are going to find the ratio will
be closer to stock or even lower, however, even with lower gears
the bigger tires sap more power that stock ones, so even corrected
the power will not be as good as stock, but it should help

Wild

OK, I pulled a number for you, a set of 4.16:1 t-case gears have
a high range reduction of 12%, that should help you figure out
the RPM and compare with stock tire/gear speeds

what about 33s with 6.5:1s

Those have a high range reduction of 17%

So changing the t-case gearing basically just restores the power you once had after changing your wheel size eh? Good to know. Just for kickers, what would installing a 1.6L FI tracker engine or VW 1.6L TD do to your speed? I know it gives you more power, but would it increase your max speed with stock gearing?

With stock gears and 235's (29" or so) I could still hit 70-75 on flat ground. It just took a little longer. No prob on Socal freeways. You have to have the power in you engine. I would start on the engine because you could change gears all day and not be happy.

A 1.6 EFI engine is basically a stroker 1.3, with about 30%
more power, hard to increase a stock engine that much

Wild

So if I pulled the very tired 1.3 out of my Sammi and replaced it with a 1.6 8valve and stock gears the effect of ,y 235's would be less of a strain? The 1.3 already has the 1.6 8 valve TBI on it.

I thought 235 tires were a really good match for a stock drive-train, and
on my truck it corrected the speedo to read 100% accurate, where before
it read 2-3 MPH faster than true ground speed

Wild

So if I pulled the very tired 1.3 out of my Sammi and replaced it with a 1.6 8valve and stock gears the effect of ,y 235's would be less of a strain? The 1.3 already has the 1.6 8 valve TBI on it.

The 1.6 will pull 235s all day 

Ok solves that problem then. Thanks!

I thought the :
6.5's are 20% reduction in high range
6.4's are 17% reduction in high range

Here is a good websites to punch your gearing/tire/t-case options to see what rpm at what speeds you will be pulling and also give you your crawl ratio in each gear.
http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

I am running a '87 1.6 16v with a 6.4 t-case, 4.30 r&p, and 31" tires... this has me running 4100rpm at 65mph and a crawl ratio of 100:1 (stock crawl ratio is about 31:1). I plan on going up to 33" tires and that should drop me under 4k rpm at 65 mph.
This combo has kept me able to run the Socal freeway (in the slow lane) and still crawl nice and slow.

according to a gearing calculator I used at www.lepayne.com/gears.html, I lose 7% percent of my power because I'm 2 inches over the stock tires. I can currently reach a max speed of 65 and I was wondering if changing my t-case gears to 4.1 would help me reach a higher max speed?

Gearing multipies torque at the wheels, it doesnt do anything for power.  Since your final drive ratio at the wheels is the product of your tranny, transfer case and diff gear ratio, downshifting your tranny on the freeway would do the same as lower gears in your t-case.  If your car doesn't have the nut to maintain freeway speed, you need an engine with more horsepower.  So I'll second what everyone else is saying - you need a 1.6!