transmission and differential ?

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:22 pm
I understand what the differential is (basically it is gears that allow the turning drive shaft to transfer rotation to the axle shafts.)

But what is the difference between the differential and transmission? The only difference between / its purpose over essentially just being another differential ... is that it controls the engaging of the drive shaft or which direction the drive shaft will spin (as well as the speed of spin based on second , first ,...etc gear) . Neutral is when it is not engaged , and reverse/forward is the rotation directions when it is engaged.

So is the transmission just the device that sits between the rotating engine connection and beginning of the drive shaft. And all its purpose is is to connect the 2 together for them to spin / disconnect the 2 to have them park / neutral/reverses... etc. The transmission if I am correct is just a light switch, settings dial that turns on / off the connection between them ...etc (for the analogy)

Question 2
On vehicles correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't all axle shafts have a differential on them to transfer the rotation of the drive shaft to that particular axle shaft. Or can you get away with the force of other axle shafts moving the other non-differential equipped axle shafts. I may have answer my question with thinking about front wheel , rear wheel , or four wheel drive.
Correct me if I am wrong the only differences is front wheel has a differential on the front wheel axle shafts but not in the back.
rear wheel drive has it opposite front wheel but only one differential , and four wheel would be a differential on each...

If I am correct in my thoughts then is there some rule for trucks or other more axle vehicles that say's something about you must have a differential on ever so many axle shafts ?


Thanks for any help on this I may have answered some of this reasoning thru but I am unsure.

Maybe it is the different names that are screwing me up... I think transaxle is both transmission + differential all in one.
Then you have the different types of transmissions or transaxles ...i.e CVT, manual , automatic ,...etc



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PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 1:08 pm
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/automatic ... ission.htm

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm


a transmission isn't " just the device that sits between the rotating engine connection and beginning of the drive shaft." theres a lot goin on in em.



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PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 4:48 pm
I agree there is a lot to them just as much if not more then the engine fixing ... that is not what I am saying

But taking the big picture forgetting the inside of the transmission then what you have should be what I said.

Obviously if one looks at the manual transmission from the automatic transmission that uses fluid presser to some extent.
One can see the manual transmission usually last longer or is easier to fix.
But I am just going by what logic and other say to some extent in my research. :allgood:



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PostPosted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:32 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_transmission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different ... cal_device)

I would strongly engourage you to take some automotive repair courses. you seem very interested in it and would learn a lot more than asking questions that can be very hard to understand.

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