Forum Discussion

roadjunkie's avatar
roadjunkie
Explorer
Apr 19, 2017

New Gears.... now what???

I posted another thread on swapping my 3.23 gears for 4.10 on my RWD 2005 GMC Sierra 1500 with the 5.3L and 4 speed auto (4L60e).

I took the truck in this morning and picked it up about 2 hours ago. I can't really test anything until I get 500 miles on it and change out the break in oil so I was advised to do short trips of varying speeds and then let it cool for a while.

So the first thing that I did notice was that the speedo is way off, which I knew about. That, along with my ABS light and BRAKE light being on constantly are next to be addressed.

My question is for those who've done it, do I have it super-tuned on a dyno for $350 or buy a programmer/tuner like Bully Dog, or comparable, for $430?

There's a guy in Kansas City that does custom tunes an a dyno for $350 on my truck. Since he's mostly into high performance cars, he said I would need to burn 87 octane pump gas for normal driving and 91 for towing. I'm not wild about paying for premium gas to tow with if I can custom tune it myself for the application needed at the moment.

A Bully Dog programmer/tuner is about $430 and I can adjust as needed. Will either of these options remedy my warning light problems on BRAKE and ABS as well as correct the speedo?
  • roadjunkie's avatar
    roadjunkie
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2017
    Negative much? Imagine if guys that are racing funny cars today would have listened to someone with an attitude like you. They'd still be running 80 mph through the quarter mile instead of over 300 mph. Have you ever been to a truck and tractor pull where they have tractors with 4 or 6 V8's on them pulling sleds? That's HP and torque, my friend and it didn't come stock. HP and torque are what moves trailers too.

    If it's beyond your capabilities, I get it.


    True temper wrote:
    You wasted your money, your truck only has so much power. Changing the gears might help a bit climbing hills but on the flat you will suffer. You are not going to get blood out of a turnip. Should have bought a smaller trailer or a more powerful pickup.
  • downtheroad's avatar
    downtheroad
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2017
    I wouldn't mess with a tune or programmer. You have already done a gear swap which should help some in the mountains....

    But at some point you are going to have to accept that you have a 150/1500 series truck and it is what it is. It's a good truck and will do a good job within its limits. Throwing more money and bolting on more stuff is not going to give it the capabilities of a 350/3500.
  • mikehart92's avatar
    mikehart92
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2017
    I had it done on an 02 and no matter how many times they flashed the computer to fix the speedo, it always reverted back soon after. Never really helped with the pulling either. Was a HUGE waste of money.
  • True_temper's avatar
    True_temper
    Explorer
    Apr 20, 2017
    You wasted your money, your truck only has so much power. Changing the gears might help a bit climbing hills but on the flat you will suffer. You are not going to get blood out of a turnip. Should have bought a smaller trailer or a more powerful pickup.
  • Hannibal's avatar
    Hannibal
    Explorer
    Apr 19, 2017
    I'm surprised the guys at the gear shop didn't adjust the gear ratio parameter as part of the gear swap. I agree on letting the GM shop do it as long as they don't charge more than an hour labor for this simple plug in, change, unplug, see ya task.
  • Gdetrailer's avatar
    Gdetrailer
    Explorer III
    Apr 19, 2017
    Unless the programmer can address the SPEEDO error my guess is also NO.

    How about this suggestion.. Take the truck to a GM dealer and pay them to set the CORRECT gear parameters. Most likely will be far cheaper to pay a dealer to fix it than to add on a programmer that won't correct it.

    Once the gear parameters have been addressed and corrected the BRAKE AND ABS issue should go away.

    The reason for those lights (BRAKE AND ABS) is they are DEPENDENT on the CORRECT GEARING PARAMETERS TO BE SET..
  • BadgerMcAdams's avatar
    BadgerMcAdams
    Explorer
    Apr 19, 2017
    If they dropped the rear end out of the truck to do the gearing change, they would have had to disconnect the brake lines to do so. This would mean that they would have to re-bleed the brakes, etc. I would check with them to see if they dropped the rear end, or just changed everything out while it was still in the truck.

    Some ABS systems require a reset in the computer if the brakes system is disconnected or worked on. Failure to reset it can also cause the ABS system to not function properly, or fail all together. Before you tow anything, get it checked. If the light wasn't on before you went in, and is on now...something changed somewhere.

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