Posted on 08/08/2015 9:00:45 AM PDT by virgil283
Even if you already understand the concept behind a stick-shift transmission, this 1936 film explains it so perfectly a school kid could grasp it. take a 10-minute educational break and learn the basics of what's going on inside your stick-shift transmissions. Even if you understand the concept implicitly, we're certain you'll learn something from the irrepressible Jam Handy.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
for later
Bkmrk.
I don’t get it. Is that the film?
And this old stuff was posted because.....?
My first car was a 67 VW bug...and I could shift smoothly without engaging the clutch..just by listing to the RPMs
no ....click on the site and the video is at the bottom.
Thanks.
Yes. I had to do that when my clutch went out so I could get home....had to sweat out approaching red lights though...HA
I didn’t scroll down far enough. Thanks.
Thanks for the link. It’s funny - at the end of the film they have a scenario where someone is testing downshifting on an automobile. The narrator describes how the young lady will accelerate to 60 mph going down a grade and then downshift to second.
She is driving a 1936 Chevrolet sedan. Those cars typically had a 216ci six behind a 3-speed transmission and a 411 rear differential. That means that 60mph was close to top speed and near the top end of the engines RPM range.
And she’s gonna downshift?!
you are right. IIRC Those cars had a very weak axle that you could break just by popping the clutch too hard...
bmk
It explained things very well, but I'm still a bit lost on exactly how the reverse gear is always going to rotate in the opposite direction.
Definitely not a waste of ten minutes for anyone, I would say. Pretty educational.
That brought a smile. I remember those horrible films from high school too. Too bad they didn't show these videos, we would have asked for more...
That was fun! Always good for the mind to learn something.
Didn’t know synchromesh went back that far. I once got drafted to drive our church bus which was an old school bus, because I was the only member of the congregation who knew how to double clutch!
Learned that in the Army driving 2 1/2T trucks.
Although I understood transmissions in automobiles I had never seen it explained in such a detailed and easy-to-understand way. Thank you!
I remember that my dad had disabled 2nd gear in every auto that he ever owned because he said that it did nothing but waste gas. ;-)
We had to shift straight from 1st to 3rd. One could not jam the shift lever into 2nd no matter how hard one tried.
Yes, reverse and syncromesh were not as well explained as the basic operation. But a fun watch nonetheless.
Reverse...notice that the two ‘gears’ at post # 1 are spininning in opposite directions. If you added another it spins the same direction as the first and is in the ‘forward’ mode. If you add yet another it goes in the opposite direction of the first again. This would be reverse. The different gear ratios in forward mode are simply achieved by changing the size of the third wheel of the order. (changing the leverage.)
I started driving clutch as a 8 ton truck driver in the LA area - very stressful.
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