An Important Transmission Aid

It is debilitating for an engine to just zoom up until the RPM gauge maxes out. Aside from the irritatingly loud engine grunt, the spinning shafts could sooner or later, blow up. To avoid this, cars are fundamentally equipped with transmissions and clutches. By principle, a clutch is needed because the engine spins all the time, but the car wheels do not. 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. Clutches are useful in devices that have two or more rotating shafts. One of the shafts is typically driven by a motor or pulley, and the other shaft drives another device. 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. For example, the Jaguar clutch of an XK roadster changes combination of shafts at six different speeds. This allows the XK to reach 60 mph very smoothly. Vital for the efficient functioning a clutch is its friction, which is a measure of how hard it is to slide one object over another. Friction is caused by the peaks and valleys that are part of every surface. radiator towel warmer. The larger these peaks and valleys are, the harder it is to slide the object. A clutch works because of friction between a clutch plate and a flywheel. In a standard Honda clutch, for example, a flywheel connects to the engine, and a clutch plate connects to the transmission. When the driver's foot is off the pedal, the springs push the pressure plate against the clutch disc, which in turn presses against the flywheel. This locks the engine to the transmission input shaft, causing them to spin at the same speed. In Mercedes Benz clutch mechanism, the friction applied between the clutch plate and the flywheel and the quantity of force the spring puts on the pressure plate affects the amount of force a clutch can hold. When the clutch pedal is pressed, a cable or hydraulic piston pushes on the release fork, which presses the throw-out bearing against the middle of the diaphragm spring. As the middle of the diaphragm spring is pushed in, a series of pins near the outside of the spring causes the spring to pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc. This releases the clutch from the spinning engine. There are several kinds of clutches used in automobiles today. For example, the standard automatic transmission contains several clutches. These are used to engage and disengage various sets of gears. An air conditioning compressor in a car has a magnetic clutch. This allows the compressor to shut off even while the engine is running. When current flows through a magnetic coil in the clutch, the clutch engages. As soon as the current stops, such as when you turn off your air conditioning, the clutch disengages. Most cars that have an engine-driven cooling fan have a thermostatically controlled viscous clutch. This clutch is positioned at the hub of the fan, in the airflow coming through the radiator. What Kind Of Car Lover Are You? . This type of clutch is a special viscous clutch, much like the viscous coupling sometimes found in all-wheel drive vehicles. The fluid in the clutch gets thicker as it heats up, causing the fan to spin faster to catch up with the engine rotation. When the car is cold, the fluid in the clutch remains cold and the fan spins slowly, allowing the engine to quickly warm up to its proper operating temperature. Clutches are collectively one of the most vital single integral parts of an automobile's engine system. Smooth transmission and acceleration depend highly on this part.