James,
I think you are talking about the "Free Wheeling Device that Saab
designed in the mid-60's. It was a very unique piece of technology. It
consisted of a shaft/cylinder affair with roller bearings riding in
their own channels. The device was fitted between the transmission and
the engine. When the transmission was turning faster than the engine,
the rollers would turn freely and separate the tranny from the engine.
But when the engine turns faster than the tranny, the rollers would
attempt to travel up a ramp and become lodged in the space at the top,
thus locking the engine and tranny together.
The whole affair could be engaged or disengaged according to driver
preference. The effect was to enable the driver to shift all 4 gears up
or down without touching the clutch. It was great for long trips, as it
increased fuel mileage, but very precarious in mountain driving where
gearing down is helpful.
If anybody else can provide a better description of the device, I
welcome comment.
Joe Curry
James wrote:
>
> All this semi-auto stuff, that's not what I wan't, I wan't a car that
> when you are in first or second in your standad manual setup, and
> your revs drop below 900 rpm, the clutch goes in. When the car is
> in nutral the cluck goes out. When you go above 900 rpm the cluch
> engadges over 1/2 a second. This way you don't have to touch
> the clutch pedel in trafic, it could also slip it if your in
> second from full stop. Thus you change like normal.
>
> But you car won't use the 15% of the power like a normal automatic
> with torque converter. You will get the economy, and even in that
> auto clutch mode you can still do wheel spins away from the junction
> (the best way of stopping pedestreians from crossing inf ront of you)
> becasue you should be able to get 5000 rpm's before it engadges.
>
> Yep, I'm going to design one, that ties onto the hydrolic system.
>
> How can you tell if the car infront is an auto? You've just
> overtaken them.
> --
> James Carpenter
> Yellow '79 spit wired by a trained marmot
--
"Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible
to travel across the country coast to coast without seeing
anything." -- Charles Kuralt
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