GB661488A - Improvements relating to the control of power-operated clutches in motor vehicle power transmissions - Google Patents

Abstract

661,488. Operating clutches; variable-speed gearing. MORRIS MOTORS, Ltd. Feb. 27, 1950 [March 17, 1949]. No. 7283/49. Class 80 (ii). The main clutch 6 of a motor-vehicle, automatically engaged progressively as the engine accelerates above idling speed, is disengaged at will by depression of a.pedal 7, but the,pedal is latched in depressed position, so as to prevent clutch re-engagement, so long as the idling speed of the engine is exceeded and the speed of the gear-box tail shaft is below a predetermined value. The latch 10, rigid with the armature 11 of a solenoid 14 energised from the battery. 15 through switches 16, 17 in series, is normally retracted by a spring 12. Switch 16 closes when the tail shaft speed is below 150 r:p.m., while switch 17 is closed, by a relay 3 energised by the dynamo 1, when the engine rotates above idling speed (500 r.p.m.). When both switches are closed, the latch 10 is urged to the right and, if pedal 7 has been depressed, the latch engages a hole in a quadrant 8 on the pedal so as to lock the pedal in depressed position until one or other of the switches opens. A second latch 22, co-operating with a notch 21 on the gear-change control spindle 19, is controlled by a solenoid 18 in parallel with the solenoid 14 so as to lock the ,gear lever in neutral unless the speeds are suitable for a gear change. An electro-magnetically operated clutch 6 is shown, energized from the dynamo 1 through a switch 4, closed by the relay 3 above idling speed of the engine, and a switch 5 which is normally closed but which is opened by depression of the pedal 7. An hydraulically operated clutch may, however, be used, the pedal 7 then controlling a valve.