2 May
2003
2 May
'03
11:54 a.m.
I don't
think _my_ auto (1968 Beetle) is an example of that. :-)
Well, now - not so fast! While your Bug may not have power steering, if
it's got an automatic transmission - then I submit that:
The automatic transmission as found in a good portion of the cars,
trucks, and busses on the roads today, is a marvelous and complex analogue
computer - solving for the match of the mechanical impedances of the
I've never worked on an automatic transmission, but I have read the shop
manual for the Borg-Warner model 35 (which was the standard unit fitted
on UK automatic cars in the 1970s).
The control valve block is a work of art. Slide valves operate on
differences in pressure between hydraulic lines (or between a single line
and a spring). The pressure in some lines increases as the engine runs
faster (thus rotating the pump faster), and so on. I am still amazed it
works!
And of course the torque converter is a rather neat little impedence
matching analogue computer...
-tony