The vehicle's mechanical transmission consists of a clutch, manual gearbox, final drive, differential and front wheel drives. The clutch allows the transmission to be temporarily disconnected from the engine to engage and disengage gears. In addition, the clutch allows the transmission to be smoothly connected to the engine, which eliminates jerking of the car when starting to move and when changing gears. The final drive increases the torque transmitted from the gearbox to the drive wheels. The differential allows the force to be transmitted to the left and right drive wheels at different rotation speeds. Without a differential, one of the wheels would slip when the car deviates from a straight line. Because when you turn (by radius) the wheels of a car move along different trajectories and, accordingly, travel different distances, which means they must rotate at different speeds. The gearbox is combined with the final drive and differential into a single unit.
A single-plate dry clutch with a central diaphragm (pressure) spring is installed on a vehicle with a manual transmission. The clutch release drive is hydraulic. Before each gear change, you must press the clutch pedal all the way to the floor to disconnect the transmission input shaft from the engine crankshaft. The gear shift mechanism is driven by a cable.
The automatic transmission consists of an automatic transmission (AT) and front wheel drives. Its peculiarity is that the selection of gear and its switching can occur automatically, without the driver's participation. The automatic transmission is combined with the final drive, differential and torque converter in a common housing.
The automatic transmission provides gear shifting depending on the vehicle speed, crankshaft speed and the automatic transmission mode selected by the driver. The automatic transmission modes are selected using the selector lever mounted above the floor tunnel. The selector lever is connected to the gearbox by a cable in a protective sheath.
The torque from the gearbox to the drive wheels is transmitted by constant velocity joint drives.
A more detailed description of the transmission units is presented in the relevant sections of the book.
[The original article can be found on the resource ChevyMan]