While no longer the dominant market force they were in the past, there are still enough manual transmissions out there on the road to make up a decent amount of work for transmission shops in certain specialized segments; and still, of course, the need for parts for, and the ability to work on, those manuals.
Below, find our Manual Sourcebook for 2022, with info provided by the companies. Click the images to view or download.
The advancement of technology in the automotive field is rapid and unrelenting. Forces that shape the marketplace, state and federal regulations, the need to attract new customers, and the need to be different and at the same time profitable are driving the car makers to develop technology at a pace never seen before.
Up To Standards
Author: Mike WeinbergSubject Matter: Tire technologyIssue: Check tires before working on vehicle
Technical Training
The advancement of technology in the automotive field is rapid and unrelenting. Forces that shape the marketplace, state and federal regulations, the need to attract new customers, and the need to be different and at the same time profitable are driving the car makers to develop technology at a pace never seen before. This also has an effect on prices, with every aspect of the components of the car becoming more expensive and more important to the operation of the vehicle. Simple wear items such as a car battery have improved in technology and longevity with a steep rise in price.
If you are repairing transmissions for a living, you will invariably spend some time on the phone ordering parts and speaking with technical hotlines to assist in your diagnosis of problems. Having been on both ends of a tech line for over half a century and an equal amount of time buying parts, I have learned a whole new language. To be successful communicating with those entities, one must understand the language and be speaking about the same correct topic with whoever is on the other end of the conversation.
This article is the final segment of our exploration of the dual-clutch transmission, or direct shift gear box (VW and Audi) or DualTronic in BorgWarner’s brand. We have included several schematics from a VW Touran model, as VW has the largest amount of these transmissions in use. VW using its VAS 5051 diagnostic system provides for, as they say, “guided fault finding,” which means that a test schedule is available for the unit and provides testing for sensors, actuators and the mechatronic (computerized) valve body.
To recap, we have looked at how the dual-clutch transmission functions, essentially two gear boxes in one with the input shafts driven by hydraulically applied clutch packs that drive three concentric shafts that are one inside the other. The innermost shaft drives a gerotor-type of fluid pump that provides pressurized fluid to actuate the dual clutches, lubricate and cool the components, and shift the transmission into the selected gear. The next two shafts are driven by the two clutch packs with one shaft shifting the even-number gears and one shifting the odd-numbered gears.
If you have been following the previous chapters of this series of articles, you are starting to understand the function of dual-clutch transmissions. We have used illustrations from the VW Direct Shift Gear Box (DSG) as VW has about 2 million of these units on the road at present.
The easiest thing to say would be: The manual transmission was first and the automatic came second. End of article. Well, that’s true… sort of.
Manual gearboxes have become much less common in vehicles over the past few decades. The automatic shift transmission became popular—and later dominant—during the 1960s. And, as sure as thunder follows lightning, the business of repairing manual units has decreased steadily as there are fewer of them. Once considered more fuel efficient, manuals have, over time,
There is more than one flavor of manual transmission, as technology has provided for more efficient and more driver-friendly shifting over the years. Common in older vehicles is the sliding-mesh gearbox. This one engages gears by moving the main shaft with gears that are located either to the left or to the right of the
Speedy’s works on all types of vehicles, from late-model vehicles with complex electronic controls to decades-old cars with complicated linkage.
