1. Manual transaxle operation

Neutral

The motive power from the engine is not transmitted from the input shaft to the output shaft so that it is not done to the differential. Blue arrow: Transmission of power Red arrow: Direction of rotation

The length of the arrow shows the rotational speed and the width of the arrow shows the torque. The longer the arrow, the greater the rotational speed and the wider the arrow, the greater the torque.

1st gear

The gear of the output shaft rotating meshed with the 1st gear of the input shaft transmits power to the differential through the drive pinion. Blue arrow: Transmission of power Red arrow: Direction of rotation The length of the arrow shows the rotational speed and the width of the arrow shows the torque. The longer the arrow, the greater the rotational speed and the wider the arrow, the greater the torque.

3rd gear

The gear of the output shaft rotating meshed with the 3rd gear of the input shaft transmits power to the differential through the drive pinion. Blue arrow: Transmission of power Red arrow: Direction of rotation The length of the arrow shows the rotational speed and the width of the arrow shows the torque. The longer the arrow, the greater the rotational speed and the wider the arrow, the greater the torque.

Reverse

The reverse idler gear is meshed with the input shaft reverse gear. The output shaft gear meshed with the reverse idler gear transmits power for reverse rotation to the differential through the drive pinion.

Blue arrow: Transmission of power

Red arrow: Direction of rotation

Violet arrow: Direction of reverse

idler gear rotation

The length of the arrow shows the rotational speed and the width of the arrow shows the torque. The longer the arrow, the greater the rotational speed and the wider the arrow, the greater the torque. Blue arrow: Transmission of power Red arrow: Direction of rotation The length of the arrow shows the rotational speed and the width of the arrow shows the torque. The longer the arrow, the greater the rotational speed and the wider the arrow, the greater the torque.

Manual Transmission

For manual transmissions, the input shaft and the output shaft are located on the same axis and the counter gear integrates the input shaft and the output shaft to transmit power.

Refer to the “Drive Train” for the differential contained in the manual transaxle.

Roles of the transaxle

(1) To engage/disengage the driving power from the engine by operating the shift lever.

(2) To increase the torque when starting off and climbing hills.

(3) To drive the wheels at high speed during high-speed driving.

(4) To drive the wheels in reverse.

Necessity of Shifting Gears

The diagram on the left shows driving performance curves, which indicate the relationship between the driving force and the vehicle speed for the 1st through 6^th gears.

Driving performance curves

Ideally speaking, the curved line of the engine driving force should be changed continuously as A in the diagram. However, the driving force of actual manual transaxle changes discontinuously, as 1st though 6^th gear.

Therefore, the engine driving force is transmitted effectively when narrowing the shaped area in the graph to keep close to the ideal curved line. It can be guessed to be close to the ideal curved line A of driving force as the number of shift gear increases. However, the design of the transaxle

becomes complicated or it causes the driver to be complicated for shift operation.For these reasons, the number of the shift gear consists of 4th to 6th gear. 5th gear is used largely.

(1) Starting off

When the vehicle starts off, a large amount of power is required, so the 1st gear, which has the largest driving force, is used.

(2) Driving

After starting off, the 2nd and 3rd gears are used to increase the vehicle speed. These gears are used because there is an upper limit to the vehicle speed in 1st gear and that not as much driving force is required.

(3) High-speed driving

For high-speed driving, the 4th, 5th, and 6th gears areused to further increase the vehicle speed. Using gears with small driving force and lowering the engine speed improves fuel consumption.

(4) Backing up

When the reverse gear is used, the reverse idler gear is added, the reverse gear turns in reverse, and the vehicle backs up.

Reduction Ratio

The reduction ratio is expressed as:

Number of teeth of driven gear

Number of teeth of drive gear

If the driven gear has 38 teeth and the drive gear has 12 teeth, for example, the reduction ratio of this 1^st gear is 38/12 = 3.166.

When the rotation and torque of the input shaft is transmitted to the output shaft, the speed of the rotation decreases and the torque increases according to the reduction ratio of the gears.

Output torque = Input torque x Gear ratio Input rpm = Output rpm x Gear ratio This indicates that the torque increases and rpm becomes smaller with a greater reduction ratio. That is to say, the vehicle may be driven at a higher speed the smaller the reduction ratio is, although the driving power decreases.

Operating Mechanisms

1. Remote control type

This type connects between the shift lever and the transaxle with a cable or links, etc. This is used in FF vehicles, and there are characteristics such vibration and noise are difficult to be generated and the shift lever position can be designed freely.

2. Direct control type

This type installs the shift lever directly on the transmission. This type is used on FR vehicles because shift operations are quick and has good handling.