 Preamble:
Following my earlier Article on ‘Driving, I’ve had requests
from more than one people that they find shifting gears a bit of a struggle,
whereas the same Car when driven by another person doesn’t offer any
such ‘resistance’ ! So, what does it mean ?In my simple speak, besides the science, it means that there’s
a certain ‘art’ behind ‘shifting’ gears, which
one can literally do with one’s little finger – PROVIDED one
manages to get the ‘feel’ of it all and it can be ‘acquired’
without much sweating ! Now the next inevitable question would be what’s all this ‘feel’
business all about ?! Therefore, I’m dedicating this ‘Essay’ to one such
curious cat - code-named ‘The Star-Cruiser’ !! To save the
Surfers from an info-overload, I am slitting this one also in two parts.
Part-1 deals with the ‘why’ of it and Part-2 with the ‘how’
of it.Read on……
The Basics of a ‘Gearbox’ Cars today are mainly equipped with 2 types of ‘Transmissions’
or ‘Gearboxes’ i.e Manual or Automatic. Since no ‘manual-shifting’
per se’ is involved in the latter, let’s forget about it here
and instead, keep in mind that the ‘discerning drivers’ all
over the world go for the 'manual' transmission, since the ‘pleasure
and control’ it offers can be very exciting, if not challenging,
as compared to an ‘Automatic'.
TYPES OF MANUAL GEAR BOXES
Most Gearboxes
today have the 'Standard-H’ configuration – a-la Julia Roberts
in ‘The Pretty Woman’ ! Barring a few entry level sub-1000
cc ones, they all have 5 ‘forward speeds’ with ‘over
drive’ on 4th and 5th and a Reverse. A typical MT/GB ‘crossection’
looks somewhat like the one below : The ‘1st’ is the most ‘powerful’ gear is meant
only to get going from standstill or for hill climbing, depending upon
the gradient. All 4/5 of these are 'synchromesh' type, which means that
within reasonable limits, one can jump slots i.e get into 2nd or 1st from
the 4th or 5th without 'crashing of gears' while the car is in motion. An ‘exploded’ view of the same GB as alongside looks like
the one below. Needless to say that all these are pretty high-tech and
precision devices and thus offer very little scope for abuse without good
prospects of permanent damage. |
