I'm looking at buying a 2002 Jeep TJ that has the following options,

Rubicon express 4.5" flex arm lift kit
1" body lift
38.5" TSL tires
rear end 8.8 ford
front end super 30 with chromoly shafts .
3.73 ratio
Stock 4.0L engine, 5 speed manual, and transfer case

The jeep is beautiful, brand new paint job and over $12000 in after market jeep parts. The thing is his engine is siezed on the crank and he's got a used motor that he bought and hasn't installed it yet so I can't test drive it to check out how the 3.73 gearing works. He's taking $1000 off the price of the vehicle if I install it myself or he'll install it. I can get the engine installed for far less. I've been doing lots of research and for this setup people normally run 4.56 or 4.88 gearing. This guy has got 3.73s in it and my question is how is this going to affect the jeep. I don't plan on doing any rock crawling but I don't want to have to ride the clutch all the time either. What about mileage? I am asking all you experts what do you think? What are the pros and cons of using these 3.73 gears?

 

With that size tyre and that lift I would be looking at 5:13 or there abouts. 3:73 is so so with 33's.

 

Technically you should be 5.13's but even 4.88's is pushing the strength of the ring and pinion in a D30. Either way neither of those axles is going to like high gearing and big bias ply tires so be careful. As for what it's going to drive like you will never see 5th occasionally see 4th and will likely spend most of your time in 3rd. Definitely not the ideal setup for on or off-road.

 

Thanks for the responses guys. The guy said that he doesn't use his 5th gear at all but that for offroading 1st,2nd and 3rd are still quite functional. I went ahead and purchased the jeep knowing full well that I will most likely be doing a gear change this winter. Doing the gear swap will allow me to use all 5 gears of the tranny effectively.