Driven members, Driving members, Oh my!

Clutches ahoy!

Lately I have been learning a lot about the drive train of manual transmission vehicles (automatic is level 2, TORQUE CONVERTERS AND FLEXPLATES!). Plenty of fun.

First things first, the purpose of the clutch is simple, to give the driver the ability to control the transfer of torque from the crankshaft to the transmission. You can control the intensity, and the velocity of the torque (force) being transferred through 3 members in the clutch assembly.

1. Flywheel: Interfaces with the crankshaft,  has a pressed on ring of teeth on the outside for contact with the starter. Also know as the First Driving Member. Notice some teeth missing when you pop in there sometime? Means you need to stop trying to energize the starter while the vehicle is already running!

 2. Pressure Plate: Attached directly to the flywheel. Multiple bolts, as well as multiple dowels. Even with a bunch of grade 8 bolts, you still have a heavy mass spinning anywhere from 400-9000Rpm, and the amount of pressure on them is massive. The dowels are usually made of tempered steel, they are extremely strong, but very brittle. The exterior of the pressure plate is a large hold down for the Belleville spring. When the clutch pedal is depressed, the throwout bearing is pushed forward on its housing and contacts the belleville spring, pushing it down and out, which tensions the release levers and allows the Pressure Plate contacting rotor to back off, allowing a minut amount of space for the clutch disc to move back, and not be contacting either the pressure plate or the flywheel, thus removing the path for torque to flow from the crankshaft to the wheels.

3. Clutch Disc:  Attached to the transmission input shaft, and is located in between the Flywheel and Pressure Plate (we'll get to this later). When the clutch pedal is depressed the clutch disc will not be contacting the Flywheel or Pressure Plate. Also know as the First Driven Member

I'll exagerate more when I have time. It's a very interesting topic, aswell as the gearing of transmissions. That many gears all almost always in mesh with each other looks like a wonderful idea for a pilot of "Will it Grind?"

-Shawn

Introduction to automotive repairs

Figure since I'm learning, I might as well document some of my massive column of notes online.

This is the truck I started with going into this course. A 99' Dodge Dakota with a 3" body lift and 32" cheapy A/Ts.

After almost a year, I've moved to a 4-1/2" body lift, 3" suspension lift, paint job, and plenty of visual accessories. One of the things I've been most proud of was being able to do this all myself. Through a pre-apprenticeship course I've learned all the tool and part knowledge needed to do these jobs with ease. My goal is to convey some of that information in a form easy to understand just as it was put for me.

Cheers.