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Either way. Something has to give up metal as you go to a lower ratio.
Yep -- the way that works is the ring gear get's taller, and the pinion gear gets smaller (to allow fewer teeth, and thus a smaller numerator on the pinion/ring ratio). Here's a good technical article on this subject by the folks at Randy'sRing and Pinion (sadly, no relation to me -- Randii): http://www.randysringandpinion.com/gear/g0100.html

That's one of the reasons why differential carriers have 'carrier' break points... if the carrier bolt-land radius didn't shift along the rotational axis of the carrier, the ring gear gets super-skinny, or super-tall, to fit gear ratios that can range from 2:50:1 to 7.17:1. Here's a good tech article: http://www.randysringandpinion.com/gear/g1099.html

Actually, they have lots of good tech there: http://www.randysringandpinion.com/tech.html Fun reading!

Randii

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Randy Burleson
4x4Wire Managing Editor Emeritus
Mongrel Isuzu Amigo

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