Simplify.
Tranny has 3 shafts. Let's name them:
1. Drive - has clutch on outside end, small gear inside case.
2. Countershaft - 2 gears, bigger one -2a- is pressed on and mates with Drive. Smaller gear -2b- is machined into shaft, mates with Axle.
Whole thing spins backwards.
3. Axle - bigger gear on one end, wheel on the other.
1 : 2a = Primary reduction. (Stock on '87 Aero is 12/34 = 2.83)
2b : 3 = Secondary reduction. (Stock on '87 Aero is 12/47 = 3.9167)
Multiply these numbers to yield 11.097 overall stock gearing. (Forget the variator for now...)
There are three ways to change these ratios:
1. Swap drive shaft/small gear AND the larger countershaft gear, which is pressed on with or without (??) splines.
2. Swap the countershaft with its small gear, re-use the larger countershaft gear, swap the Axle gear.
3. Swap all 4.
What you cannot do is just swap both countershaft gears because then one or both would no longer engage the Drive or the Axle gears.
Malossi sells it both ways:
1.


2.


In fact these are pictures of two sides of the same carton! Those wacky Italians!
The Malossi kit I received came with a new #1 shaft.


A 16-tooth primary is machined as part of the shaft. It replaces the stock Clutch drive shaft, which has only 12 teeth. AFAICT it does not come off. The 32-tooth separate gear replaces the 34-tooth stock countershaft gear, 2A. The 12/47 secondary ratio is supposed to be retained, obviously. This gives a new ratio:
16/32 = 2:1
12/47 = 3.9~
Multiplying = 7.833~
I previously calculated - incorrectly - a 5.67 ratio, but that was because I didn't know which gears were to be replaced. 8-ish :1 might almost work.
Here's where it gets fuzzy for me: On the '87 Aero, the Axle gear has splines. Reading ChevyGuyJay's long thread, evidently so does the the larger (2a) gear. Is this correct?
The Malossi kit gear above is not splined, so countershaft splines have to be machined down, also correct?
What about the Axle gear on post-94 bikes. Does it have splines? The kit gear in the first photo appears not to have them.
It may be worth one more disassembly for me to pull 2a and check to see if there are splines firsthand, unless someone can tell me offhand..
Thanks!
















