

Teeth on the collar, called dog teeth, fit into holes on the sides of the blue gears to engage them. However, the collar can slide left or right along the yellow shaft to engage either of the blue gears. The collar is connected, through the splines, directly to the yellow shaft and spins with the yellow shaft. The purpose of the collar is to connect one of the two blue gears to the yellow drive shaft.If the engine is off but the car is coasting, the yellow shaft can turn inside the blue gears while the blue gears and the layshaft are motionless. The blue gears ride on bearings, so they spin on the yellow shaft.If the wheels are spinning, the yellow shaft is spinning. The yellow shaft is a splined shaft that connects directly to the drive shaft through the differential to the drive wheels of the car.In this way, the layshaft receives its power directly from the engine whenever the clutch is engaged. The green shaft and the red shaft are directly connected through their meshed gears so that if the green shaft is spinning, so is the red shaft. These are also connected as a single piece, so all of the gears on the layshaft and the layshaft itself spin as one unit. The red shaft and gears are called the layshaft.The green shaft and gear turn at the same rpm as the engine. When you release the clutch pedal, the engine and the green shaft are directly connected to one another. (The clutch is a device that lets you connect and disconnect the engine and the transmission.) When you push in the clutch pedal, the engine and the transmission are disconnected so the engine can run even if the car is standing still. The green shaft and green gear are connected as a single unit. The green shaft comes from the engine through the clutch.That is the idea behind the continuously variable transmission (CVT). Ideally, the transmission would be so flexible in its ratios that the engine could always run at its single, best-performance rpm value. You shift gears so the engine can stay below the redline and near the rpm band of its best performance. The transmission allows the gear ratio between the engine and the drive wheels to change as the car speeds up and slows down. For example, an engine might produce its maximum horsepower at 5,500 rpm. Second, if you have read How Horsepower Works, then you know that engines have narrow rpm ranges where horsepower and torque are at their maximum. First, any engine has a redline - a maximum rpm value above which the engine cannot go without exploding.
#Shift cars manual
In this article, we'll answer all of these questions and more as we explore the interior of a manual transmission.Ĭars need transmissions because of the physics of the gasoline engine. When I mess up and hear that horrible grinding sound, what is actually grinding? What would happen if I were to accidentally shift into reverse while I am speeding down the freeway? Would the entire transmission explode?
