The gearbox, everything you need to know

How exactly does the gearbox work?

A gearbox consists of gears. When these gears mesh, they start to move. For example, if you shift from 1st to 2nd gear, one ring is ‘released’ and another is connected. So the gear is actually being changed. There is oil in the gearbox to make this process run smoothly.

What is the gearbox for?

The gearbox consists of gears of different sizes. By switching to larger sprockets, a higher speed can be achieved, but the rotational speed is reduced. In this way, a certain speed per gear leads to different speeds of the car.

Gearbox maintenance

It is possible that the gearbox is no longer running smoothly. Think of squatting, jumping out of gear, et cetera. A possible cause of this is that your bearings or gears are worn out. It is also possible that your shift fork is broken. In each of these cases, it must be repaired. If the gearbox is really bad, it will even have to be completely replaced. The costs of this will of course vary per car. We can already tell you that you can dig deep into your pocket for this. Overhaul of a gearbox easily costs 2,500 euros.

Types of gearboxes

In addition to the manual gearbox, there are a number of other types of gearboxes. For example, there is the automatic gearbox, which selects the correct gear itself. Another example is the semi-automatic gearbox, or robotized gearbox. In terms of technology, it looks more like the manual gearbox, but the clutch and shift are controlled automatically. Also, there is a difference between single and double clutch . With the double clutch, one clutch operates the even gears and the other the odd gears. In this way it is possible to switch without interrupting the drive.