[Pro_Street_Vega]

I have been doing some research on the Poweglides and this is what I am hearing. Most everyone uses stock gear sets. Well, not the big boys who run straight cut gears that run somewhere between $1000 and $2000 just for the gear set. I believe these are also called planetary gears. OEM sets come in both 1.76 and 1.82 ratio. 1.76 is said to be stronger because of the "housing" the gears come in. 1.76 usually meant factory big block while 1.82 meant factory small block. 1.82 will give you a better 60 ft. however, it is common to see an overall better ET with the 1.76 on lower HP, lighter car applications because the 1-2 shift is not so dramatic. The 1.76 will hold 1st longer (so to speak) which means your MPH is a little faster going into high gear. The Vega had a hug problem laying over right after the shift (on motor). I don't know which gear I had, I am going to check that out.

Your thoughts, experiences and input? Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong and also correct terminilogy as well.

 

[JEWPRA]

You summed up about all my knowledge right there.. I have a stock 1.76 gearset in mine and it is doing great at my low power level. It is supposed to handle 3 times the power I currently make iirc. Cost me about 1500 bones

 

[Pro_Street_Vega]

The gearset didn't cost that much right? The entire tranny cost $1500 I'm guessing. What broke on the transmission that was in the car before?

 

[slocoupe88]

You more than likely had the 1.76 gear set. I was told the 1.82 were used in factory 6cyl applications. Very seldom will you see anyone use a 1.82 planet in a race build.

There are a couple 1.80 straight cut sets used on ebay in the $600-700 range
The straight cut gears wont load the thrust bearing like the helical cut planets, and are much stronger

That might be a happy medium for your car.

 

[Pro_Street_Vega]

I found this and it would appear that the Vega had the 1.82 in it. Hard to believe it made it that long. Thank goodness for a light car!!

 

[SSx2]

Bracket/street powerglides (stock case) will mostly be the 1.76 type carrier planetary. It can handle up to 800 hp with the right mods. You can get different gear ratios. Average cost for these types of tranny's are $1k - 1.5k. Then you get into special build pg's that have 1.80 straight cut planetaries. These pg's can hold up to 2800 hp depending on the mods. Cost for one of these 2800 hp bad boys will be about $5k. You can get all the parts separately to build a nice pg to fit your needs.