Like any other part in a car that’s required for its normal functioning, if you drive a car, you’d know that a clutch is also a part necessary for it’s working.
How a car clutch works:
A clutch is a part that’s present in any type of car you may be driving whether it’s manual or automatic. So how a car clutch works exactly, is that it has two rotation shafts. One usually driven by a motor and the other one drives another device. In a car it can be seen that the engine of the car can be running all the time but it isn’t necessary that the tires are running too. For that the tires need to be disconnected from the engine for that time somehow all the while keeping the engine running. A clutch allows us to do that by making the spinning engine engage to a transmission that not spinning by smoothly controlling the slipping process between them. A clutch uses flywheels and plates to work properly by using the friction between them. When a person’s foot is off the pedal of their car the pressure plates a re pushed against the discs of the clutch by the spring. In this way the engine is locked to the transmission shaft causing them to spin at the same speed. The force a clutch can take depends upon the friction between the flywheel and clutch brakes and how much force is put on the pressure plates by the spring.A cable or hydraulic piston pushes the release fork as soon as the clutch pedal is pressed which in turn leads to the throw-out bearing pressing against the middle of the diaphragm spring.
A series of pins near the outer side of the spring cause the spring to pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc as the middle of the diaphragm disc is pushed. This is how the clutch is released from the spinning engine.
Picture taken from www.bestpartstore.co.uk
How to understand when you need a new clutch:
As you keep on using a car clutch there will eventually come a time when you will need to change the clutch of your car. As the wear and tear on the clutch the clutch starts to feel like it’s spongy and soft. So, when it starts to feel like your clutch is getting more spongy then usual that means that the clutch is wearing out as it’s being used in time meaning it is reaching the end of its usability. The second thing you can look for is the biting point. Now a biting point is when the clutch allows the engine to start connecting to the wheels. That’s when you feel that sort of resistance before starting. Now if you new clutch the biting point of its clutch is very low. This mans that as soon as you release that clutch pedal the wheels will start moving. As you keep using you clutch the biting point keeps getting higher and higher with time because the clutch discs get wear and tear and they don’t have the same amount of friction anymore. So, you will need to release the clutch more to get the car going. Now as the biting point gets higher and higher it’s an indicator that the clutch will soon be needing a new clutch. Lastly when your car has a new clutch changes gears feels very smooth. When you change a gear there’s no shaky feeling coming from the clutch but as time passed and your clutch starts to wear out the changing gear s will not feel as smooth as they used to when the clutch was new. That’s another indicator that’ll your clutch needs to be changed.
How to change a car clutch:
The simplest method is to use a wooden block.Wedge that block between the flywheel and the body of the car. That prevents the flywheel from moving and makes removing the bolts from the flywheel considerably easy. That can easily be done using hand tools. Once the screws are removed simply grab the clutch and pressure plate from the middle and pull them off the fly wheel. It’s that simple.
