VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Trucks and Vans 1953 chevy 3100 rear end gears 3.55

I would like to change out my 3rd member gears out to improve driving conditions.
Does anyone have info were I can purchase 3.55 3rd member to fit my 53 pick up
Or any info to improve my speed without winding out the rear end ??

Thanks any info will be helpful..

Chev of the 40’s sells the ring and inion set as well as the installation kit. The factory ratio is 4.11. There was nothing lower from the factory. I would be surprised if you can find a complete axle that already has the conversion.

You will notice a decrease is acceleration.

I put a set of 3.55 gears in the 49 pickup that we had, the main thing I noticed other then better cruising at highway speeds was I usually would down shift going around most corners.
It was definitely worth the change, we put about 5000 miles on it on VCCA tours before we sold it, wish we had it back.

Dens41 … i have a 1940 chevy 1/2 ton pu and im very intrested in putting in the 3:55 ring .. two reasons why is too get better highway speeds but also too reduce the noise coming from 1st and 2nd gear .. its extremely loud . Im running the original 3 speed . After you installed the 3:55 gear did you notice a decrease in noise while in 1st and 2nd gear?

tt will have no affect on the gear noises and may actulally make things worse due to making high gear less usable at low speeds requiring seconed gearbeing uded more.
The 1940 3 speed has fairly quite gears compared to the noisy low gear in 1939 and prior.
If your transmission is that loud you have either an internal transmission problem or the trans, case is contacting the metal of the cab thus transmitting the noise.

If it’s gear noise it won’t change much, our truck did not have much gear noise in the trans. It was definitely better driving on the highway.

Thank you for the info .. i rebuilt the trans thinking something might be bad internally , that made no diffrence . Im going to check if the trans is in contact with the cab metal to metal , that was a good suggestion. Also whats anyones opinion on maybe something going on with the clucth. 1st and 2nd is loud but 3rd goes quite. With clucth pressed in noise on 1st and 2nd goes quite, which probally dont mean nothing since trans stops moving with clucth pressed in correct ? Idk just trying to gather any suggestions possible .. hate this loud noise dont think it should be that loud.

Sounds to me like gear noise, does the noise change much between when you coast in gear and under load?

Just a thought. What does your shift knob look like? Is it the stock black rubber knob? The reason I ask is I put a fancy shift knob on my 38 and it sounded like the gears were destroying each other. The way the knob was made it was acting like a speaker and amplifying the transmission noise. I put the stock rubber knob back on and all is well.

Wow. That is something different.

are ytou hearing transmission noise or fan noise?
The truck has a larger fan blade that makes much more noise than a car fan.

Yep. It was easy to diagnose because the noises weren't there before I changed the knob. It has a metal insert in the top that took the vibrations traveling up the shaft and acted like a speaker. I was surprised by the amount of noise it created.

Is there any info on what 3rd member will fit ??
Or If a 1950 - 1954 Car rear end is the same lenght ?

Dens41 for sure its louder under load once im coasting noise trims down .. Tiny im wondering lf you nailed it , i do have a fancy shift knob i believe i put that on before truck was running i cant really remember.. alot of good Suggestions.. im out of town for a week once i get back im on it..Dens41 let me know what you think with noise triming down while coasting

The 1934 and up genuine GM shift knobs had a rubber bushing in the lever opening to prevent noise transfer.

This is the knob I'm referring to that transferred the noise, acting like a speaker.

Usually if the noise changes a fair amount under load and coasting it would indicate gear noise. I have not experienced a shift knob causing that but it sure sounds possible, and an easy fix.