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Manual/Transfer Case
(The Other Gear Boxes)
By Mike Riley Technical Director On the eve of the release of Transtars new Standard/Transfer Case and Differential Catalog, it would be fitting to address some of the changes and improvements that have occurred over the years to sticks (manual shifts) and 4 x 4 transfer cases. Although the main focus of our business has always been biased toward automatics, the standard line is a growing segment, and will continue to be in the future. Unlike Europe, and to a lesser extent Japan, the vehicle population in the U.S. equipped with sticks has for decades hovered around 13% to 15%. (Americans must be lazier than Europeans since Europeans are shifting gears manually most of the time.) Transfer cases, on the other hand, have grown substantially in numbers and modifications in the U.S. due to increases in SUVs and Trucks over many years. Manual transmissions were the first gearboxes to be used in production vehicles. Automatics popped up just a bit later, and initially met with some resistance. People were somewhat reluctant to change. The early manual transmissions were, to say the least, bangin, clangin, straight cut gear whinin, heavy chunks of iron. The only bearings were for the main components (i.e. input, output, cluster, etc.). Gears rode directly on the main shaft and the gear lube was the viscosity of lard. The drag coefficient of the transmission had to be comparable to pulling a house trailer at 10 degrees below zero. Early transfer cases did not fair much better, although some improvements in components and oils had started to take place by then. The increased use of caged and thrust bearings along with using thinner fluids like ATF certainly helped. The first transfers for four wheelers were pretty basic though, in that some models merely had a simple planetary gear set for hi/low range, a chain and a couple of sprockets for two wheel/ four wheel drive; all of which were engaged manually through shift rods. Some transfers did not even have chains, just gear-to-gear drive. Failure rates on both sticks and transfers were just a tad higher than today. But Along Came Progress! Due to the energy crunch and quality issues of the 70s, things started to change. Even transmissions from overseas started to have an influence in the states, such as using caged needle bearings between gears and the main shaft. Standard transmissions developed over the last few decades barely resemble the early dinosaurs. Gears have changed for the most part from straight cut to helical to suppress noise. Cases and extension housings are aluminum, not cast iron, to reduce weight. Transmission oil used is ATF or a special synthetic to reduce drag and materials, heat treat methods and machining processes have all improved to provide overall durability. One big improvement that would impact shifting a manual transmission from one gear to the next is the synchronizer. There was a time when grinding gears was the norm during a shift. The cut of the synchronizing teeth on a gear and the synchro sleeve was not that great, and if there was a synchro ring involved, no one knew it. As synchronizer technology improved the amount of grinding and pop out diminished. Even durability was impacted due to smoother shifting. For a long time synchro rings were traditional brass with normal tapered teeth and friction grooves cut into the I.D., which act as a brake to momentarily stop the gear. With changes, which occurred on units like the Borg Warner T5 World Class and New Venture 4500, ease of shifting got even better. The synchro ring actually went to a three-piece design comprised of an inner ring, outer ring, and center cone (Fig 1). The center cone has
Fig 1

paper attached just like a friction plate in an automatic. Another design which Toyota uses is basically two brass synchro rings with a steel center cone. Other designs have sprung up as well. As with automatics, standards received more speeds as time went
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