The mirror., 1922-02-16
CLUTCHES AND TRANsMIssIONs


are to be commended for their efforts at
standardization of units that enter into
the construction of automobiles and that
applies to clutches and transmissions,
whether they be of the cone type, multiple
disc, or friction drive.
When you look over the advertisements
of a new car you will often see the state
ment that the car is built of standard parts
and it will go on and give the name or
make of the clutch, transmission, axles,
steering geer, motor, springs, etc. The
fact is there are fewer parts to the auto
mobile that are not standard than any other
type of machinery built. Everything is
standardized, from the threads on the
nuts and bolts to the complete motor it.
self. This tends to lower the cost of man.
ufacture. The manufacturer of automobile
parts can give lower price on a given
part if it is standard than if each and every
auto manufacturer had a different size
part for the same service.
There are two types of clutches in gen.
era use today which are giving fairly
good service; one is the cone, and the
other the multiple disc. There are two
advantages the disc clutch has over the
cone type and that is that car will start
in motion easier and there is less slippage
on the disc clutch especially those with
cork insert.
The number of discs vary in different
cars, some have only four to six discs,
while others have sixteen and twenty. The
most l ever encountered was in an old
Kissel car, 1910 model, with forty-six saw
steel discs. This car was equipped with
a left-hand engine, with counter bal
ances, rotating in the opposite direction;
that is, the crank shaft turned to the left
instead of to the right as practically all
crank shafts turn.
The greater number of transmissions in
use are of the selective type; you can shift
to any gear change without going through
all of the different gears as is the case in
the progressive type Most cars have
three forward speeds and one. reverse,
there are few cars with four forward
speeds, and special motor truck transmits
sions which give as high as ten forward
and five reverse speeds.
Efforts have been made and are still be-
ing made to abolish the gear shift lever
in automobiles, both the pneumatic and
electric types have been tried out. The
electric seems to give the best satisfaction,
but one make of car, that uses it as STAN
dard equipment, provides hand lever if
purchaser desires. One of the great ad-
vantages of the electric gear shift, par
ticularly in heavy traffic, is that by press
ing button conveniently located on
steering post) and by pushing down the
clutch pedal with his foot, the driver can
make gear change and still have use of
both hands to control the car.
Efforts have been made to use friction
drive on automobiles but so far only one
company seems to have made success.of
it. The advantage of the friction drive is
that there are no gears to strip and the
driver has any number of speeds, the car
mentioned above is advertised as the car
with a thousand speeds.
The main trouble with the cone type
clutch is, if the covering gets too dry it
will grab and start the car with a jerk
and if it gets too much oil on it, then it
will slip, while with the disc clutch you
have to keep the case well oiled.
Tractors are mostly equipped with cone
clutches while few have disc and some
also have friction drive One of the most
interesting tractor layouts is the Caterpil-
lar, manufactured by the Holt Manu-