Have you, ever wondered what is happening inside a car, when you press the clutch pedal Or, why, do you need, to press the clutch pedal before you shift gears in a manual transmission car This, video gives you, logical answers to these questions At the end of the video we will, also understand the crucial role played, by the clutch in an uphill start To, understand the need for a Clutch let's first understand the anatomy of an internal combustion engine car Internal combustion engines have a very limited torque band and Due to this reason in order to efficiently vary the speed of the drive wheels internal combustion engine cars need a transmission system The use of this transmission makes sure that the engine is working within its optimum rpm range and by changing gear According to the driving conditions the transmission helps to control the drive wheel speeds In a manual transmission car making these gear changes is not an easy task to have a smooth gear change with a Manual transmission the engine power flow to the transmission has to be discontinued However it is not practical to turn off the engine just for this gear change The clutch is used for this purpose in short the clutch is a mechanism to disconnect the flow of power to the transmission without turning the engine off Let's understand how it works The main part of the clutch consists of a disc coated with high friction material on both sides a simplified clutch disc is shown here this disc sits on the flywheel if An external force presses against the clutch disc the clutch disc also will turn with the flywheel due to the frictional force The input shaft of the transmission is connected to the disc So that when an external force is applied to the disc the engine power will get transmitted to the transmission system This external force is provided by a Pressure plate spring system Cover of this system is attached firmly to the flywheel So the pressure plate will firmly press onto the friction clutch disc and the engine power will be transmitted to the transmission system But this is the case in normal driving so how is the power disengagement done with the clutch For the disengagement purpose a special kind of spring is introduced in the pressure plate Assembly, this spring is known as a diaphragm spring To understand this diaphragm spring better, assume that the diaphragm spring motion is fixed around This circle in this case if you press the center portion of the spring as shown the outer portion should move in the opposite direction The diaphragm spring sits between the pressure plate and the cover To understand this configuration better let's take a cross-section of the assembly the outer portion of the diaphragm spring is connected to the pressure disc This means if you press the inner portion as shown the pressure disc will move away from the friction disk thus the power flow will discontinue to the transmission This is exactly what happens when you press the clutch pedal A hydraulic system transfers the clutch motion to the center of the diaphragm spring When the diaphragm spring is pressed the power flow is discontinued? During this time you can make a gear change the clutch pedal is released after the gear change and the power flow continues again This is how a clutch works In an actual clutch you can see a few coil springs on the clutch disc what's the purpose of these springs These are used to smooth out the fluctuations and vibrations from the engine power output It is clear that the hub and disc are not directly connected The engine power first reaches the disk then it transfers to the springs and finally to the output hub This means that the springs will dampen out most of the power flow Fluctuations from the engine and the motion transferred to the vehicle will be much smoother Now, let's explore an extremely important and difficult task in driving cars with manual transmission starting from uphill Even in a car without a handbrake you can use this clutch technique to start, while pointing uphill In an uphill start initially both the brake and clutch pedal are pressed, while the engine is running Now, release the clutch pedal partially until you feel the clutch bite The clutch bite can be experienced at. Your foot it may feel like the engine is shivering at This point even if you release the brake pedal you can see the vehicle will not roll the Partially released clutch acts like a brake now You can press the gas pedal and the car will move forward The big question here is how does the partially release clutch act like a break This break phenomenon is nothing but a game of force balanced in a perfectly forced balanced condition the vehicle Wheels will not be able to roll and the gravitational pull will be the same as static frictional force at the wheels The vehicle wheels are prevented from rolling by another force balance Force balance between the engine forward force and the same static frictional force When you partially release the clutch and it balances for the clutch bite you are unknowingly doing all these force balances When these forces are in perfect balance the wheels the transmission system and the clutch disk will not be able to spin This is how the clutch bite acts as a brake but remember the frictional force between the rubbing surfaces Produces the engine forward force in this case this will result in wear and tear of the friction material on the clutch disc We hope this video will enable you to be a better engineer and a better driver Please support our educational activities at patreon.com and don't forget to subscribe thank you
This is probably the best video of how a clutch actually works that I have seen. The generall principle of how a clutch works is pretty well understood but this video actually shows each important component (which most just gloss over). So today I learned!
I finally get how the spring actually works in a clutch.
And if your clutch works like this You may have a problem.
Finally after countless of explanations/videos of how a clutch actually works this is made and completely trumps everything I've seen in the past. I always wondered what each component does but most explanations just talk about the clutch as a whole and how it sends power etc.
Meanwhile, I can’t look past that they depicted the engine in that car, which is clearly a Z4 Coupe, as a V6 :/
Reading up about how a clutch works was really helpful back when I was learning to drive manual.
Knowing that the clutch is basically the joining point between the engine and the wheels, and realising you need to slowly apply the power of the engine to the wheels, and enough of it (accelorator) in order for it to move the weight of the car.
It was literally overnight going from stalling or chirping the tires, or bunnyhopping down the road to smooth take offs most of the time.
A question: I was doing uphill start. I didnt push in the gas pedal at all and let out the clutch pedal completely, and I heard some cranking noise of metals hitting each other. I got scared and pushed the clutch pedal back in. Then I added a bit of gas pedal and my car took off nicely. What happened really? Also, my car is brand new hyundai, 1 month old.
This doesn't look like correct way to handle uphill start and i don't think anyone in Europe where manual trans is predominant is doing it as described. I'm driving manuals for 15 years and the way i do it is when releasing the brake pedal, start releasing the clutch and depressing the gas pedal at the same time. This reduces the time where clutch is in "slipping mode" and improves it's lifespan. So far my cars never needed clutch replacement up to 200.000km since that's when I'm usually selling the car (150-200.000km).
So the clutch works kind of like a reverse disc brake