Hello,
Would anyone happen to know if the 3.92 gear and pinion was the shortest ratio made for the 185mm differential case?
If not, what shorter ratios were available, and in which part of the world?

Did any vehicles in the US come with the 3.92 differential, or would it need to be purchased from Europe?
Finally, what is the shortest gear ratio that can be found in the US?

My apologies for all the questions, but thank you for any information.

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Irony.cc

The shortest ratio I recall from the era on USA cars was a 3.46 used on the 300SE. I believe it used the same axle housing at the six-cylinder 124s. You refer to a 185 mm axle, which is probably the ring gear diameter, but I haven't heard the axle described that way before.

The early four-cylinder 201s used a smaller axle housing, but I think all later 201s both four and six used the same basic axle (and transmission) as the six cylinder 124s.

The above refers to USA vehicles. Other markets may be different.

Duke

For center sections with a 185mm ring gear the shortest ratio world-wide is 4.36:1, and for USA delivery, the shortest is 3.92:1.
3.92 gears were found in W114/115, and a few W123 applications.
The tallest 185mm is 2.88:1.

Unfortunately despite both being 185mm in diameter, the ring gears and pinions are not a direct fit into the W124 differential, at least as far as I know.


I was hoping that at least the 3.64 was available in the US, but it does not seem that way after searching through EPC's.

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Irony.cc

3.46 is the final drive for my W201 which was originally a 4 speed 1.8 but the 3.64 was the final drive for the 5 speed (both 2.0 and 1.8 litre engines)

The 3.92 sounds like a 2.0 diesel final drive.

There was a whole load of information on the Mercedes classic wiki site but the links don't work any more - I can't find the data at the moment it has been moved / removed

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Re: W201 diffs
Other than the 4-valve, 4 cylinder cars, and the 6 cylinder cars, all the rest have diffs with a ring gear diameter of 168mm.

The w201 had 168 mm or 185 mm diff.

Upon searching Ebay sites from around the world along with several EPC's, it seems the 3.92 was the shortest ratio available that fits into the 185mm W124-style differential housing.
It was found in several models in Europe between the late 80s and early 2000s, usually paired with smaller 2.0-2.6L engines and manual transmissions.
The differential housings have some differences, but the 3.92 ring gear and pinion part number is the same for the W201, W202, W124, W210, W209, R129, and possibly other chassis I am forgetting.

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Irony.cc

The 3.92 differential arrived from Germany.

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Irony.cc

WOW that's dedication.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words