If you have ever driven a car with a gear stick then you should know what a clutch is. It’s one of the three pedals found in your car and without it, you would be stuck. By pushing in the clutch it allows you to change gears and move from a stationary position to a vehicle in motion.
As your car’s engine is always spinning, there has to be a means for the wheels to disengage so they can stop moving. This is where your clutch comes in. The clutch disengages the wheels without killing the engine.
Everyone knows that a car has an engine which provides it with power, but not everyone is familiar with a clutch or how it works exactly. This mechanism both engages and disengages your power transmission from the driving shaft to the driven shaft. It connects rotating shafts, and there can be two or more of these under your bonnet. If you drive a manual transmission, the clutch is connected to both the shaft coming from the engine and the shafts that turn the wheels. While the motor is going to spin constantly, you don’t want the wheels continually spinning.
One of the rotating shafts is going to be connected to the engine or power unit, this will be the driving member, while the other rotating shaft, or driven member, provides output for work.
So what are the two main components of a clutch? A clutch plate and a flywheel. When you drive a car with an automatic transmission, the clutch works a little differently. A torque converter, which is part of a large series of systems, is what connects the engine to the transmission, making the wheels spin.
If that seems a little too much to digest then not to worry, head over to Astro Brakes so we can assess and help replace your worn out clutch. We are the experts after all!
