Inside of a 3-Speed, manual transmission. Hat-tip to Gary with a second tip of the fedora to Al for suggesting this video. Gary's comment was "...the video does a great job at starting from simple concepts and showing how it all comes together to form a complex gadget like a transmission."
Circa 1990, the cost to build and install a manual transmission was about $900 more than an automatic transmission. Yet the cost of the automatic transmission as an option to the consumer was about $700.
For a while, limitations of the friction materials used in the bands that locked up the planetary gear-sets in automatic transmissions limited them to about four speeds. That friction material is what "eats" the power created by the engine during full-power shifts while the transmission is between-shifts. As a frame-of-reference, an engine turning 6000 RPM makes 50 revolutions of power if a shifting event takes 1/20th of a second to execute.
Then some genius realized that they could retard the spark for the tiny fraction of a second the engine was disconnected from the drive-wheels and viola! they could suddenly package more gear-sets in a given transmission case. That was only possible because of the computational power inside of the Powertrain Control Module and the integration of Engine functions and Transmission functions.
The guts of the transmission and the software that keeps it alive is totally invisible to everybody walking or driving down the street. They don't see the metallurgy of the gears, the chemistry of the fluids, the friction materials and hydraulic actuators or software... To them it is an inscrutable miracle like the rising of the sun and gravity that is so "everywhere" as to be invisible.
"The guts of the transmission and the software that keeps it alive is totally invisible to everybody walking or driving down the street." - Hence a reason why unscrupulous car mechanics will claim to the customer 'Your transmission is just about to go out on you - we recommend replacement', a very expensive repair.
ReplyDeleteMy soon to be 25 year old GMC Sierra has a bit over 221,000 miles on it. I've owned it since 2003 and am hoping it will be my forever truck (especially looking at the cost of a new one these days). I'm 61 years old. One of my coworkers has a '99 with 100,000 more miles on it and it still seems to be holding up. Mayibe we are the exception to the rule.
The engineering and level of manufacturing we're at today is astounding when you start to think about it... I hope these skills are not lost in the future. Yet throughout history there are echo's of times passed when we may have mastered technology that today escapes us. Interesting times, interesting times...
ReplyDeleteI learned something today. Thank you. I had no idea how the 6 speed automatics worked.
ReplyDeleteMagic dirt. Why won’t the crops grow? Why won’t the bullet fly out of the gun?
ReplyDeleteSaving for later.
ReplyDeleteI far prefer manual to automatic transmissions.
We recently had to replace the 6-speed transmission on our 2020 motor home (F-53 chassis, 25,000 miles, needle bearings fell apart) under warranty, thank you Jesus! $12,000 charged to Ford. I didn't know my chin could drop so far; it hit the counter, it did!
ReplyDeleteThe way cell phones work. Gotta be magic - no other explanation. You can receive a call in the middle of a cornfield miles from anywhere from the center of a megalopolis.
ReplyDeleteI called my boss who was on vacation, taking the Alaskan interior cruise with his wife. He picked up on the 2nd ring, me in our office in south Texas, he on the gangway leading down to Skagway.
What !?! HOW ??!?
Those of us of a certain age in the UK remember playing with Meccano as kids, and making assemblies like gear boxes. Great way to learn some basic mechanical skills and appreciate how some of these devices work.
ReplyDeleteLike TB, I am a manual transmission man, I find autos frequently have a mind of their own.
Thank-you.
ReplyDeleteAwesome links.
Flush handle cheap plastic internal bits rounded off in the ladies room toilet at our local, rural tavern last night. Took the lid off, stowed it where the local wildlife wouldn't break it. Bent the brass rod into a nice hook and hung it on the tank, so the ladies could pull the rod and chain to flush the toilet without fishing around or breaking anything else. Only one gal came out of there not rolling down their sleeves or drying off their elbows or declaring the toilet unflushable
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