Pioneer 1200 Gear Swap

[pyromedic]

Hi All, First Post. This is a great site for cart info.
I'm hoping that someone here can lend some insight into a problem with gears for a Pioneer 1200. My Dad and I have gotten a 23 HP Big Block Kit from Tom @ Dixie Sales (He's great to deal with by the way) and installed it in a Pioneer 1200. The swap was a great success with one exception. The problem is that since this motor runs the opposite direction of the original Kawasaki we have to run in reverse, as all carts with this mod do. Unfortunately it appears that Club Car used a transaxel thats a bit different from those in their golf carts so the gears from a golf cart don't work. Tom tried to help us with gears and we learned that apparently the spacing of the gears is different. After looking at all the specs for Club Car's other utility vehicles it appears that the XRT 900 has a ratio that would be better. The original Pioneer 1200 ratio is 15.0:1 in the original forward and 20.6:1 in reverse (our new forward), much too low since reverse is now forward. Consequently, our top speed is not very fast. We go like crazy in reverse! The XRT 900 has a 11.8:1 forward and 17.1:1 reverse (which would be our forward). Does anyone know whether the XRT 900 gears will swap into the 1200 transaxel? That would improve things tremendously!
Thanks in advance for your help!

[roady89]

Wouldn't it be easier to swap the rear differential to one more suitable? Seriously what would be wrong with a cart rear diff with somewhere around 12:1.

[pyromedic]

Hi Roady,
That would be fine except that the original transaxel has a locking differential. It's a nice feature on soft ground and I hate to give that up.