How does a clutch work

 

How does the clutch system work?

The clutch system is one of the most important components of your vehicle, as you already know, it allows you to place your car equipped with a manual transmission in gear, while at the same time shift to the next gear as your car starts moving.

There are two kinds of clutch systems:

1- Mechanical clutch system

2- Hydraulic clutch system

Most of the newer vehicles are equipped with hydraulic systems due to their self adjusting feature; older mechanical clutches needed constant adjustment to maintain proper clearance between the clutch release bearing and the clutch pressure plate.

We will focus on the modern hydraulic system since is more likely that your vehicle has this modern system instead of the older design.

The most common parts that you will find in a hydraulic clutch system are:

1- Clutch master cylinder

2- Clutch pedal

3-Clutch slave cylinder

4- Clutch fork (Throw out fork)

5- Clutch release bearing (Throw out bearing)

6- Clutch pressure plate

7- Clutch disc

8- Flywheel

9- Pilot bearing or pilot bushing depending on the manufacturer.- When you depress the clutch pedal in your vehicle, it pushes a rod connected to the clutch master cylinder, it is in this part that the mechanical pressure being applied by the clutch pedal is transformed in to hydraulic pressure.

The master cylinder either has a reservoir attached to it, or it is connected to a remote reservoir, this reservoir contains the hydraulic fluid (most systems use brake fluid), that will be forced through the line in to the clutch slave cylinder.

It is the hydraulic pressure entering the clutch slave cylinder that activates a rod in an external slave cylinder against the clutch fork. The clutch fork will apply pressure against the pressure plate through the clutch release bearing.

In an internal clutch slave cylinder system, the slave and the release bearing are one unit, eliminating the need of a clutch fork.

The pressure being applied by the release bearing forces the pressure plate to decrease the pressure it has against the clutch disc, once this is achieved, the transmission is not longer turning along with the engine, and it is now that you can place the vehicle in gear without damaging the transmission.

The clutch disc is the part that makes contact with both the pressure plate and the flywheel.
The splines in the centre of the clutch disc allow the disc to slide in the splines of the input shaft of the manual transmission that is how the rotational movement of the engine is transfered from the flywheel to the transmission.

The flywheel is bolted to the rear of the engine, to the crankshaft to be more specific, the crankshaft is the one that converts the up and down movement of the pistons in to rotational movement, that's why the flywheel turns when the engine is running.

So, basically, the function of the clutch is to transfer the rotational movement of the engine to the transmission, while at the same time offers a way to disconnect this force at the driver's command every time the clutch is depressed.

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