I am considering a change in tire size from 31 to 33 inch tires. i have stock pinion and t-case gears right now with the 1.6 vw diesel in it and it does a (c) grade on the highway (i need to draft behind suvs to get up to 65 but when i throw her in 4 low its way to fast to do any good creeping. So my question to whoever this may concern is what would you put as a combination of gears to be a good highway vehicle but can still have game off road? pinion, t-case, or both you oppinion matters. Keep in mind though that it is a diesel. is doesnt rev like the 1.3 or 1.6 tracker engines will. Its done at about 3k rpm. Thanks for reading

What is your rpm at 60 or 65 right now? You could put a turbo on it!

What kind of rig do you have?

its an 85 samurai. it is at about 3k rpm at 60 mph. it already has a turbo 

I would play with various gear/tire/rpm values with this calculator:

http://www.acksfaq.com/gearcalc-01-04-07.php

Start with the optimum operating RPM for your diesel, then add in the tire size and finally start playing with both Diffferential and t-case gear values to get the desired road speed at the desired RPM.

From there, you can play with the ratios - increasing the RPMs for your road speed to improve the low-range gearing response.

I would imagine that, with a diesel, even a good ratio for decent road speed will provide an improved low range response over stock.

Comments?  Diesel owners?  Buhler?

4.16 tcase gears and 4.62 sidekick front diff gears in the axles would do nicely I would think

Do the sidekick pinion gears fit right in the samurai diff?

if you get the ones from the front diffs of the sidekicks they do.

Do the sidekick pinion gears fit right in the samurai diff?

Besides them being from the front axle, you will need some sort of spacer (called "cans") to hold the spider gear pins in place...

Spacers are available from many vendors.

...and yes, you CAN bolt a an aluminum TracKick third directly onto a steel Samurai axle... IF the sidegear splines match the Sammy axle shafts.   

Unfortunately, the aluminum housing will shatter like a fortune cookie if you abuse it.