Automotive

Transmission
Clutch and Gear box
Mohan Krishna D

Transmission System
Transmission system in a car helps to transmit
mechanical power from the car engine to give kinetic
energy to the wheels. It is an interconnected system of
gears, shafts, and other electrical gadgets that form a
bridge to transfer power and energy from the engine to
the wheels. The complete set up of the system helps to
maintain the cruising speed of the car without any
disturbance to the cars performance. The oldest variant
of the transmission system in India is the manual
transmission that has undergone various modifications
and alterations to form the present day automatic
transmission.

Clutches
Clutches are useful in devices that have two rotating shafts. In these
devices, one of the shafts is typically driven by a motor or pulley,
and the other shaft drives another device. In a drill, for instance, one
shaft is driven by a motor and the other drives a drill chuck. The
clutch connects the two shafts so that they can either be locked
together and spin at the same speed, or be decoupled and spin at
different speeds.
In a car, you need a clutch because theenginespins all the time,
but the car's wheels do not. In order for a car to stop without killing
the engine, the wheels need to be disconnected from the engine
somehow. The clutch allows us to smoothly engage a spinning
engine to a non-spinning transmission by controlling the slippage
between them.

Types of Clutches : 1) Positive Clutch (Dog Clutch)

2) Friction Clutch
Cone Clutch
Single Plate Clutch
Multi Plate Clutch
Diaphragm Clutch
3) Hydraulic Clutch
Fluid Coupling
Hydraulic Torque Converter

1. Positive clutch
(Dog clutch):
In the positive clutch, grooves
are cut either into the driving
member or into the driven
member and some extracted
parts are situated into both
driving and driven member.
When the driver releases
clutch pedal then these
extracted parts insert into
grooves and both driving and
driven shaft revolve together.
When he push the clutch pedal
these extracted parts come out
from grooves and the engine
shaft revolve itself without
revolving transmission shaft.

Merits and Demerits

Advantages

a)No slip operation

b)Develop very little heat since they do not depend on
friction
c)Generally lighter and less costly than a friction clutch of
similar torque capacity

Disadvantages

a)Cannot be engaged at high speeds

b)Shock accompanies engagement at any speed
c)When both driven and drive shafts are at rest, some relative
motion may be required to engage.

2. Friction clutch:
In this type of clutches, friction force
is used to engage and disengage the
clutch. A friction plate is inserted
between the driving member and the
driven member of clutch. When the
driver releases the clutch pedal, the
driven member and driving member
of clutch, comes in contact with each
other. A friction force works between
these two parts. So when the driving
member revolves, it makes revolve
the driven member of clutch and the
clutch is in engage position.
This type of clutch is subdivided into
four types according to the design of
the clutch

Merits and Demerits

Merits

Demerits

A.)Cone clutch:
It is a friction type of clutch.
As the name, this type of
clutch consist a cone
mounted on the driven
member and the shape of
the sides of the flywheel is
also shaped as the conical.
The surfaces of contact are
lined with the friction lining.
The cone can be engage and
disengage form flywheel by
the clutch pedal.

B.)Single plate
clutch:
In the single plate clutch a flywheel is
fixed to the engine shaft and a
pressure plate is attached to the gear
box shaft. This pressure plate is free
to move on the spindle of the shaft. A
friction plate is situated between the
flywheel and pressure plate. Some
springs are inserted into compressed
position between these plates. When
the clutch pedal releases then the
pressure plate exerts a force on the
friction plate due to spring action. So
clutch is in engage position. When
the driver pushes the clutch pedal it
due to mechanism it serves as the
disengagement of clutch.

C.)Multi-plate
clutch:
Multi-plate clutch is
same as the single plate
clutch but there are two
or more clutch plates
inserted between the
flywheel and pressure
plate. This clutch is
compact than single
plate clutch for same
transmission of torque.

D.)Diaphragm
clutch:

This clutch is similar to the

single plate clutch except a
diaphragm spring is used
instead of coil springs for
exerting pressure on the
pressure plate . In the coil
springs, one big problem occurs
when these springs do not
distribute the spring force
uniformly. To eliminate this
problem, diaphragm springs are
used into clutches. This clutch
is known as diaphragm clutch.

3) Hydraulic
Clutch
A.)Fluid coupling:
It is a hydraulic unit that replaces a
clutch in a semi or fully automatic
clutch. In this type of clutch there is
no mechanical connection between
driving member and driven
member. A pump impeller is bolted
on a driving member and a turbine
runner is bolted on the driven
member. Both the above units are
enclosed in a single housing filled
with a liquid. This liquid serves as a
torque transmitter form the
impeller to the turbine.

Hydraulic torque converter

is
same as the electric
B.)Hydraulic
transformer. The main
torque
converter:
purpose of the torque
converter is to engage the
driving member to driven
member and increase the
torque of driven member. In
the torque converter, an
impeller is bolted on the
driving member, a turbine
is bolted on the driven
member and a stationary
guide vanes are placed
between these two
members. These all parts
are enclosed in a single
housing which is filled with

Gear Box
A gearbox is a mechanical
method of transferring
energy from one device to
another and is used to
increase torque while
reducing speed. Torque is
the power generated
through the bending or
twisting of a solid material.
In a situation where multiple
speeds are needed, a
transmission with multiple
gears can be used to
increase torque while
slowing down the output
speed.

How to Determine Gear Ratio

In mechanical engineering, a gear ratio is a direct
measure of the ratio of the rotational speeds of two or
more interlocking gears. As a general rule, when dealing
with two gears, if the driving gear (the one directly
receiving rotational force from the engine, motor, etc.)
is bigger than the driven gear, the latter will turn more
quickly, and vice versa. We can express this basic
concept with the formulaGear ratio = T2/T1, where
T1 is the number of teeth on the first gear and T2 is the
number of teeth on the second.

 1)Start with a two-gear train.To be able to

determine a gear ratio, you must have at least two
gears attached to each other this is called a "gear
train." Usually, the first gear is a "drive gear"
attached to the motor shaft and the second is a
"driven gear" attached to the load shaft. There may
also be any number of gears between these two to
transmit power from the drive gear to the driven
gear: these are called "idler gears.
2) Count the number of teeth on the drive
gear.One simple way to find the gear ratio between
two interlocking gears is to compare the number of
teeth (the little peg-like protrusions at the edge of the
wheel) that they both have. Start by determining how
many teeth are on the drive gear. You can do this by
counting manually or, sometimes, by checking for

 3) Count the number of teeth on the driven

gear.Next, determine how many teeth are on the driven
gear exactly as you did before for the drive gear.
4) Divide one teeth count by the other.Now that you
know how many teeth are on each gear, you can find the
gear ratio relatively simply. Divide the driven gear teeth
by the drive gear teeth. Depending on your assignment,
you may write your answer as a decimal, a fraction, or in
ratio form (i.e.,x: y).

Main types of Gear Box

An automobile requires high torque when climbing hills
and when starting, even though they are performed at
low speeds. On other hand, when running at high
speeds on level roads, high torque is not required
because of momentum. So requirement of a device is
occur, which can change the vehicles torque and its
speed according to road condition or when the driver
need. This device is known as transmission box.
In an automobile various type of gear boxes are used
which allow the vehicle to obtain different torque and
speed combination. Today I am going to tell you about
the types of gear boxes.

1) Manual Gear
Box
In this type of gear box different speed
ratio or gear ratio is selected by the
driver manually. Some special skill of
driving is required to operate this type
of gear box. According to their design,
this type of gear box is subdivided into
three types.
--- a) Sliding mesh gear box:
It is that gear box in which gears on the
splined main shaft are moved right or
left for meshing them with appropriate
gears on the counter shaft for obtaining
different speed. This type of gear box
derives its name from the fact that the
gears are meshed by sliding. One
disadvantage of this type of gear box is
that, special skill is required to operate
this gear box

(B.) Constant mesh gear box:

It is that gearbox in which all the gears are in
constant mesh with each other all the time.
The gear on the main shaft rotates freely
without rotating the main shaft. Three gear
transmission constant mesh gear box consist
two dog clutches. These clutches are
provided on the main shaft, one between the
clutch gear and the second gear and the
other between the first gear and reverse gear.
When the left side dog clutch is made to slide
left by means of gearshift lever, it meshes
with the clutch gear and the vehicle runs on
top speed. If this clutch slide right and mesh
with second gear, than the vehicle runs on
second gear speed. So in constant mesh gear
box we can change the gear ratio by shifting
the dog clutch. This type of gear box is more
popular than sliding mesh because it creates
low noise and less wear of gears.

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C) Synchromesh Gear Box

One big problem occur in constant mesh gear
box is that when the driver engage the dog
clutch, the main shaft and gear to be meshed
running at different speed. So when engage
this gear cause wear and tear of dog clutch.
This problem is solved by a synchromesh
gear box. This gear box is same as the
constant mesh gear box except dog clutch is
replaced by synchromesh devices.
Synchromesh gear devices works on the
principle that two gears to be engaged are
first brought into frictional contact which
equalizes their speed after which they are
engaged readily and smoothly. The
synchromesh looks like as the cone clutch
where the outer surface of cone consist the
frictional surface. This type of gear box is
widely used in automobile.

2. Automatic Gear box :

A transmission in which various speeds are obtained automatically is
known as automatic transmission.. In this type of gear box driver merely
selects the general car condition such as forward or reverse. The
selection, timing and engagement of gear for the required gear speed are
accomplished automatically when the accelerator is pressed or depressed.
Automatic transmission needs no gear change lever and clutch pedal
since clutch and transmission is a combined unit and works automatically.
Automatic transmission is generally subdivided into two types:
1) Epicycle Gear Box.
2) Hydraulic Torque Converter

A)Epicycle Gear
Box:
This type of gear box uses no sliding dogs
or gears to engage but different gear
speeds are obtained by merely tightening
brake bands on gear drum. It consists of a
ring gear annular wheel, sun gear and
planet gears with carrier. In order to obtain
different speeds any one of these units can
be held from rotation by means of brake
bond. The ring gear contains teeth on its
inner circumference and it is surrounded by
a brake band. The brake band is operated
by a gear stick or lever to grip the ring gear
and hold its movement. The sun gear is
attached to the clutch shaft thus moves
along with the movement of engine
crankshaft. The planet gears are in constant
mesh with both the sun gear and ring gear
and are free to rotate on their axes carried
by the carrier frame which in turn is
connected to the driver shaft.

B) Hydraulic torque
converter:

Hydraulic torque converter is same as the

electric transformer. The main purpose of
the torque converter is to engage the
driving member to driven member and
increase the torque of driven member. In the
torque converter, an impeller is bolted on
the riving member, a turbine is bolted on
the driven member and stationary guide
vanes are placed between these two
members. This all parts are enclosed into
single housing filled with hydraulic liquid.
The impeller rotates with the driven member
and it through the liquid outward by
centrifugal action. This liquid flowing from
the impeller to turbine runner exerts a
torque on the stationary guide vanes which
change the direction of liquid, thereby
making possible the transformation of
torque and speed. The difference of torque
between impeller and turbine depends upon
these stationary guide vanes. This serves as
the function of both gear box and clutch.

10 Most common Transmission

Problems
: 1) Lack of Response
2) Whining, Clunking & Humming
3) Leaking/Low fluid
4) Grinding or Shaking
5) Burning Smell
6) Refuses to go into gear
7) Check Engine Light
8) Transmission Noisy in Neutral
9) Gear Slipping
10) Dragging Clutch