gears question Please help!

[jamieburke]

do ukdm cars have the same gears as usdm cars or the 'short' gears the Japanese cars are described as having?(91 3litre manual) also has anyone got experience with the 4.235 final gear? Is it worthwhile investment for spirited country driving?

[Sudesh]

As far as I'm aware, the US models have the same gear setup as the UK as both those countries use the J4A4 series gearbox. The US gearbox suffered from snap ring issues too, however not all within 91/92 year are affected. The affected boxes could be checked by the sticker on the actual case itself. But I would have thought most of those would have shown the problem by now, as the service bulliten was posted in 97! But I guess anything is possible and maybe some have not shown the issue.

JDM cars are not supposed to have the snap ring issue as they used the J4A3 gearbox.

But remember, later model UK cars got the short gears too, think from around 94 maybe 95?? Can't remember off hand the exact year.

[goldnsx]

do ukdm cars have the same gears as usdm cars or the 'short' gears the Japanese cars are described as having?(91 3litre manual) also has anyone got experience with the 4.235 final gear? Is it worthwhile investment for spirited country driving?
I believe the UK gearboxes are the same as the ones all over Europe. 1994 the gearing in Europe changed as short as JDM. 4.235 has been delivered with NSX-R only. If you have a 91-93 with long gearing the combination of JDM gears AND 4.235 make a difference for spirited driving. I've both and like it since 7 years much over the boring-long gearing. 4.235 alone is not worth the labor involved changing it.
Some track guys in the US prefer the long US gearing due to less shifting on the straight.

[duncan]

Written from the perspective of the later UK 5 speed gears.
"Spirited country driving", depends what you mean, up to 70 it is going to be 2nd which ever set of standard gears you have.
I would suggest that your 2nd to 1st down change at [say] 40/45 could be a bit improbable so why worry.
Standard final drive and JDM/late UK gears and 6 speed change up at 70+ ish.
Standard final drive and US/early UK gears change up at 80ish [allegedly]
Standard auto, wait until 90ish [or so I'm informed]
As for the change from 3rd to 4th on the limiter with whichever box, you may have other things on your mind, on a country road I wouldn't know.

[madras]

just changing the gears to the shorter ratios will make a difference. done on mine and 2nd went from 80 to 68mph, 3rd and 4th are also shorter, 1st and 5th are the same. It does make a difference for a sure.