A manual transmission (Manual Gearbox) is a house of various components like gears, shafts and various selecting mechanism that are arranged in a special fashion to provide appropriate torque and speed ratios to compete with the challenges provided by the different road conditions, the shifting from high torque to high speed and vice.
Manual Gearbox
Basically, a manual transmission is a gear box that permits the driver to select among distinctive gear ratios to pressure the car. Lower gear ratios provide extra torque, however much less speed, whilst better tools ratios provide much less torque, however better speed. Different gear ratios are regularly referred to as “speeds,” so a “six-speed” manual transmission has six forward tools ratios.
At its simplest, the manual transmission includes 3 shafts with constantly-intermeshed gears of various sizes. The input shaft connects to the engine, thru the clutch. The countershaft is constantly meshed with the input shaft and has more than one gears. The output shaft connects the countershaft to the driveshaft and subsequently the wheels. In four-wheel force and all-wheel force vehicles, the output shaft connects to the switch case first. Reverse gear is generally on a fourth shaft to impact a alternate in direction.
The gears themselves are not fixed to the output shaft, but freewheel. Locking collars, on the other hand, rotate with the output shaft and can shift or slide back and forth to engage one of the gears. That’s why we call it “shifting” gears. In “neutral,” with no gear selected and the clutch released, the input shaft and countershaft are spinning, as are the output shaft gears, but the output shaft doesn’t move because none of the locking collars are engaged.
Manual Transmission Working
If you’ve driven a vehicle with manual transmission, or if you’ve ridden in a manual transmission vehicle, or if you’ve visible a respectable action film with a vehicle chase scene (no person drives automatics in movies), then you definitely know approximately the clutch pedal and the tools shifter. These are the two inputs with the aid of using which a driver operates a manual transmission, though if we’re being technical the shifter is the simplest piece of this complete puzzle that is operated manually (i.e. with the aid of using hand).
Underneath all that’s what seems to be an elaborate mechanism – a whirring array of shafts and gears that somehow translate into forward (or reversed) momentum. Though the diagrams is probably intimidating, a transmission is a deceptively easy piece of machinery. All you’ve got got to do is break it down into its fundamental components.
Types of Manual Gearbox
There are 3 types of manual gearboxes used since the introduction of the transmission that are-
Sliding Mesh Gearbox
Sliding Mesh Gearbox is the oldest type of gear box used. In this type of gearbox shifting occurs by the sliding of gears over the splined main-shaft in order to mesh with the appropriate gear on the lay-shaft whose one gear is in constant mesh with the clutch shaft gear in order to carry rotational motion for the conversion(high torque or high speed)as required by the drive, this gearbox requires special technique for the shifting that is usually known as double-declutching and also the meshing was so noisy and harsh ,that gives rise to the development of new gearbox system.
Note-They were usually came with max of 3-speed manual shifts.
Constant Mesh Gearbox
Constant Mesh Gearbox is the modified version of the later which was introduced to over the limitations of the later, in this type all the gears on the main-shaft, lay-shaft and clutch-shaft are in constant mesh with each other and the selection of the appropriate gear is done by the special meshing devices known as dog clutches which slides over the splined main-shaft in order to select the appropriate gear as need by the drive.
Constant Mesh Gearbox system flushes away the double-de-clutching problem and made the drive less noisy as the spur gears of the sliding mesh is replaced with the helical or bevel gears , but the shifting of gear is still not smooth and also there is a lot of wear and tear of the dog clutches due to the different rotational speed of the shafts while meshing, which leads to the high maintenance.
Note – They came with 4 or 5-speed 1-reverse manual shift configuration.
Synchromesh Gearbox
Synchromesh Gearbox is the latest type of gearbox used from decades as this system overcomes all the limitations provided by the constant mesh gearbox or sliding mesh gearbox and also improves the output capabilities of the manual transmission system, in this type the dog clutches from the constant mesh gearbox is replaced by the synchromesh devices which first bring the main-shaft and lay-shaft at same speed by the frictional contact, then meshing of the appropriate gear occurs which makes the system smooth and also decreases the maintenance of the gearbox, today this system usually comes with 5-speed 1-reverse manual transmission configuration.
Note- They are coming with 5-speed 1-reverse configuration.
Application
Specifically, manual transmission covers 52% of the total automobile market which means more than half the vehicle on the roads are equipped with MT.
- All the heavy vehicles such as trucks, loaders etc.are prepared with MT.
- Almost all of the bikes on the street are having manual gearbox with normally 4 or 5-speed shifts with out a reverse.
- All The system race vehicles makes use of manual transmission with quick reaction shifting mechanism.
- Almost all of the business vehicles makes use of MT because of its low fee besides high-cease vehicles like audi,bmw etc.
Advantages
- The vehicle is more attractive to the driver.
- The driver has complete control over the gears and when to shift the gears.
- The cost of a manual vehicle is lower than that of an automatic vehicle.
- Transmission cost is less for repair.
- It provides better mileage.
Disadvantages
- Manual transmission can be annoying in heavy traffic.
- There may be some problems in learning the new driver.
- Precise control over hills is necessary to avoid stalling or rolling back.
- Hands and feet can hurt when using gears and clutch.
