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Thread: 1972 E3 gearing?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Location
    Portland, ME
    Posts
    22
    My Cars
    1972 E3

    1972 E3 gearing?

    So here is my deal - I have never had the pleasure of driving an E9 or E3. My project car is a 3.0L, stock, numbers matching, dual weber carburetted, dead slushbox machine. I have a question for those with more experience with these cars. When I pop the Getrag 265 overdrive 5-speed in there, how are the 3.64 gears that I have going to feel? I assume that I would want a taller gear set out back.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    25,402
    My Cars
    F90 M5; E36 M3 Turbo
    Real short. Good for torque multiplication but you will be buzzing along on the highway at higher rpm than you need unless maximum performance is the goal. 2.93 to 3.15 would be good. Look at what Getrag 265 cars had for rear gears. Try the gear ratio spreadsheet calculator under the technical tab at the diffs online website and plug in your Getrag ratios, tire sizes and then experiment with a few readily available diff gear options. Building one is difficult and expensive. If you don’t mind an open diff, there is a guy in Maine that I gave a couple of old diffs to as well as our old Bavaria. Can’t recall whether they are manual or auto ratios but I think 1 was from a manual E24. Was that you? Can’t remember the screen name.
    Last edited by pbonsalb; 01-16-2023 at 07:07 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Location
    Portland, ME
    Posts
    22
    My Cars
    1972 E3
    That's me my friend. I thought the name looked familiar. Thanks for the tips. I'm trying to get my Bav running for the summer. I think I'll just rebuild the Webers in the short run and look for a 3.07 side loader. I think every one of the E3 diffs that I have are 3.64, but it is a little harder to know for sure since early cars have no ID tag. Thanks for reaching out!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    25,402
    My Cars
    F90 M5; E36 M3 Turbo
    The Bav I gave you was great to drive - I can’t recall the diff ratio but it was changed to a longer LSD when the auto was swapped for the Getrag 265. Just use it. That Getrag has the 0.081 OD 5th not the 1:1 you find with the rare dogleg 265.

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