Low geared??

I know it's not a Tacoma but I was wondering what causes my 1981 Toyota Pickup to be so low geared, it seems to be wound pretty tight between 65 and 70 mph, is it the transmission, the rear end or a combination of both that that is responsible, I am running stock wheel and tires? It is from the era that has 85 mph max on the speedometer.

Steve E............

 

Door jamb sticker will give you a lot more info than us guessing but I would say the rear end rather than the transmission but could possibly be both. I assume manual?

 

I'll probably go by the stealership and see if they can tell me which is causing it to be low geared. Being an 81 I guess it's probably older than most of the Guys on the Forum. LOL. I'm at a little over 278 K now and still running strong.

Steve E...............

 

We've had many toyota's come and go within the family but the ones we kept have made it to 200K+ will little to no issues. BTW, door jamb info can tell you what kind of tranny and axle gearing you have.

 

The cause of low gearing is usually low gearing.

 

81's still had a 4 spd manual right? So my guess would be a lack of an overdrive gear combined with relatively low axle gears and small tires, is why she is screaming on the hwy. Put some bigger tires on it!

 

It has a five speed and the tires are one size over stock (D-78-14 = 175-70-R14 I believe) 185-70-R14. I had the ratios that the 'Stealership' gave me but misplaced the paper so I will have to ask them again.

Steve E........

 

I had a '77, '83 & '95 PreTaco all 4Banger 5Speeds except '77 was a 4Speed.
I don't remember what size the '77 & '83 took but stock size on the '95 was 195/75/14.
Check your door jamb sticker to know for sure what stock size is.