Gear Shift Quality Improvement In Manual Transmissions Using Dynamic Modelling

The importance of the gear shift quality of manual transmissions has increased significantly over the past few years as the refinement of other vehicle systems has increased. The synchroniser is often blamed as the cause of many shift quality issues. This is not always the case. The interaction of the entire selector system from the shift fork to the handball, the driveline and the transmission internals all play a part in the overall shift quality. The dynamic interaction of these systems at a component level is difficult to interpret by traditional test methods and virtually impossible at concept stage. To overcome these difficulties a dynamic model of the entire synchroniser, selector mechanism, driveline and transmission has been created. The model predicts the gearshift quality for a given set of input parameters, which can be correlated against test data. The model can then be used for parameter studies to investigate potential improvements to gearshift quality. The model can also be used at the concept stage to indicate suitable specification for synchroniser geometry, component stiffness, mass and inertia.

This paper will present experience of gearshift problems using a dynamic model, the structure of the model and the methodology used.