Ever since I was a teen in the 1970s and had to replace an automatic transmission in my car several times, I have wanted to understand the principles of how an automatic transmission worked. I never understood how the "bands" were used to change gears. This video explains it perfectly. It is still hard to understand, but I think I'm catching on.
I love 1950s-era instructional videos. So straightforward, almost to the point of hilarity. 12:26 "...making them especially useful in driving tanks" *PICTURE OF A TANK* Just in case you were unclear on what a tank is. I'll say this though: I understand how planetary gears work now.
The answer about overdrive is in this video as well. Early automatics always had the potential to be OD capable, but weren't configured for it. Later in life they were. Law #3. 'When the planet carrier is the input, the result is overdrive. Good stuff.
At 53 yrs old, & driving manuals most all my life, I'm on my 3rd automatic, a GM 4L60E. So, I figure I'd start learning a little about the typical American automatic. Enter, planetary gears. I too, find 'em quite baffling, especially when we are talking 2 or more sets. (I think) a basic PG set (sun, planet, ring) is capable of three speeds. Some sort of simple modification enables a 4th gear overdrive (I think). Fairly sure GM 4L60E has only one set of PGs'. Like I said, complex & fascinating.
The second half of the demonstration, ie, the part where there's an input to both the sun gear and ring gear pretty much describes the "synergy" gearbox of a Prius, when both it's gas engine and electric motors are working.
Ok so after the 4th time of watching this video, I get it haha. The double input speed had me confused as to how it could vary speed as well as reverse it. Who ever invented planetary gears was a brilliant person.
BC it is just basic concepts for gearing up for the cold war. Now we don't need so many Electronic Technicians coming out of tech schools. I repair transmitters and receivers and this is dying out to the overseas competition. I'm going to have to retrain in another business and upgrade my skills for something more in demand. Bought a Ham radio for $49 I'd have to pay $300 just a few years ago But I do like looking at these old films and thank the people who presented this for historical value.
They actually use clutch forks and sync sleeves to accomplish this, here's a vid that might help you understand this a little better... /watch?v=vOo3TLgL0kM
because today's world is not interested how things are made or how they work, the majority are only interested in mass consumption and gossips. hence these kind of videos are worthless for many people except engineers who nowadays learn first hand from google.
