GEAR SYSTEMS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 676, 31 October 1933, Page 2

GEAR SYSTEMS

ONLY THREE IMPORTANT METHODS USED' IN ENGLISH CARS. EASY-CHANGE QEAR-BOXES For all the many and the highsounding names there are only three easy-change gear systems of irnportance in English motordom. First, there is The Wilsonj pre-sel-ective gear-box, such as is fitted to Armstrong-Siddeley, Talhot, certain Standard, Invieta, Crossley, Alvis, and 3VE.G. models, and, in conjunction with the fluid fljrwheel, on Daimler, Lanchester and B.S.A. cars. It is an absolutely "bungle-proof" gear-change. Here is how it operates : There is a selector "lever on the steering column - — the orthodpx gear-lever is missing. The driver starts the engine, preselects first sp.eed — that is, moves the pointer opposite the notch markd "1" on the steering column — and then, when he is ready t0 move off, depresses the clutch pedal, lets it Iback again, and accelerates. Then he pre-selects second speed and, when he is ready ' to change, pushes the clutch out and lets it in again. And so on for the rest of the gears. Changing down is just hs simple ■ — ide-clutch and let it in again. (Nothing more ' than that — it is gearchanging rohhed of all its terrors.

Synchro-Miesh. Then there is the synchro-mesh gear-hox. This, briefly, is an ordin- : ary sliding-pinion igear-box fitted with a device that does the double-de-clut-ching of the expert automatically. Small metal cone clutches are included inside the gear-box, and these, when a change is made, bring the en- ' gaging pinions to the same speed, so that they mesh' together silently and easily. All the driver has to do is to kick out the clutch and move the lever into the required gear. No skill is needed, just a slight pause in neutral to give the cones a chance to do their work. It is not an American invention, as some people think. It is patented in England by the designer and director of a well-known British car. It is fitted to Rolls-Poyee, F'ord, Mlorris, Vauxhall, and Austin cars, among others. With this gear system again the novice can change up and down with the touch of the expert. Free-Wheel. We have also the free-wheel system as adopted by Singer, fWolseley, and Rover. The motor-car free-wheel works in exactly the same way as that of a pedal cycle, except that it is, of course, of very much more robust construction. When the car free-wheels' the engine "idles" and any gear can be engaged silently and with ease. Then the driver depresses the acce'lerator pedal again and the engine takes up the drive. It has this advantage: except when starting aw_ay from a standstill, the clutch pedal need never to be touched. Which is why some manufacturers call it the "clutchless gearchange." It is simplieity itself — .all the driver has to do is to take his foot off the aceelerator, when, of course, the car will free-wheel, and the gear-lever can be moved into any gear (not reverse, though!). You can go direct from top into first at 50 miles an hour — I have ; tried it and it can be done, writes T. H. Wisdom in The Daily Express (London). Some manufacturers fit, in addition, an autolmatic clutch — operated by a vacuum servo motor from th'e induction pipe — rthat takes the clutch out when the engine idles so that the pedal need never Ihe touched at all, even when starting.