gear question

[reezy]

im looking at getting some 4.10 gears for my stang and paying a shop to have them installed, but my question is...how do these gears work? forgive me for knowing next to nothing about cars but in the picture it looks like 2 gears...shouldnt there be five of them? can someone explain please

 

[7000rpmisheaven]

The small cone shaped gear is called the pinion gear. It basically connected to the end of the driveshaft. The circular gear with the hole in the center is called the ring gear. The rear axle basicly goes right through the the center of the ring gear and has the rear tires on either end. The driveshaft turns the pinion gear whose teeth push the teeth on the ring gear and the ring gear turns the rear axle. This is the general principle.

 

[wickedgt70]

There should only be 2 gears. I would assume that by saying "5 gears" you are thinking of the transmission gears...i.e. a 5-speed tranny. These are rear-end gears. These go into the rear axle of the car, not the tranny. By changing the gears in the rear end you are effectively changing the ratio of every gear in the tranny.