Suspension and Transmission – Pelaez & Rivera

Tranmission, Suspension and Steer Parts

All of the power generated by a piston engine is useless if the driver can’t control the car.
That’s why automobile engineers turned their attention
to the suspension system almost as soon as they had mastered
the four-stroke internal combustion engine.

Non-independent suspension

A rear-wheel-drive car often has a live axle, a dead axle, or a rigid axle. Tubes containing both the drive shafts and the differential gears.

Independent suspension

Instead of sharing a common axle, each wheel on a car with independent suspension is independently attached to the body or subframe. Different spring combinations may be used.

Anti-roll bars

To restrain cars from rolling – leaning over on corners – an anti-roll bar is used, often at the front, sometimes at the back and sometimes at both front and back. It is a torsion bar crossing the car through two pivots on opposite sides of the frame.

Driving through the front wheels

Front-wheel-drive cars use the same transmission principles as rear-wheel-drive cars, but the mechanical components vary in design according to the engine and gearbox layout.

Driving through a propeller shaft

In a front-engined rear-wheel-drive car, power is transmitted from the engine through the clutch and the gearbox to the rear axle by means of a tubular propeller shaft. The rear axle must be able to move up and down on the suspension according to variations of the road surface.