Ring and Pinion Question

[ein bora]

I'm still undecided about swapping out the fifth gear on my 1.9 IDI. All I've read tells about the substantial rpm drop when shifting into fifth, and possibly how it becomes unusable in non highway use. A better idea I'm thinking would be to swap out the whole ring and pinion set thus making the reduction of rpm's more balanced through the gear change. Acceleration might become hampered - but I'm not to concerned about that. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any aftermarket sources for the ring and pinion and was hoping someone on here might be able to help me out? Used would be my preference but again I can't find any sources to find out what vehicles and what gears ratio's would work in my 020 trans. Any help or thoughts appreciated.

[duffer]

I don't know if it's any help, but
www.BrokeVW.com lists all the
various models and R & P ratios.

[arb]

I drove my rabbit in OD at non-highway speeds, but you keep your foot out of the throttle so you don't lug the engine, and you understand it is for steady state, not going up a hill or accelerating.  Changing the final drive ratio will not affect your jump from 4 - 5. There are some after market ratios, but you'll spend about $400 for the gears and $500 for the pig, at least the only ones I found on the web... and the ratio is not much different from the 3.69:1 many have.

Have you seen your trans ratios ?
http://scirocco.org/gears/

[8v-of-fury]

How many times do you normally use 5th non-highway? your in ontario, same as me, so i know there are quite a few roads that have 80km.. and im sure you could ride low rpms in 5th doin 80-90 its only a tad slower than highway speeds and for 50km.. you should be set in 4th no?

I think you'd be better off getting the 5th gear instead of swapping out the R&P... IMHO lol