How Does a Clutch Work in a Car?

Video Transcript

"We're going to discuss how a clutch works, and first of all, the clutch is a coupling device. And what you have to do with the gasoline powered engine is you have to be able to disconnect the engine from the power train, which is the transmission. If you can't disconnect the engine from the power train, you're going to stall the engine and you're going to have to, you know, try and restart it and hop along, and it's something you're going to have a difficult time trying to control the vehicle. So, when you take a clutch by ways, use on a manual transmission, when you take your foot then you push down on that clutch pedal, you're disengaging the clutch from the transmission. So now the transmission basically is a neutral and this takes to load off the gear, this is allows you to make gear changes either up and down, it allows you to take the transmission out of gear and once the transmission is in neutral, you can release the clutch, take your foot off the pedal and hold your foot on the break and then you don't have to worry about the car moving at all. When you want to again continue driving, you depress the clutch and then you put the transmission in the gear and then slowly release the clutch, and the car will start to move, and you connect the engine to the power train and then make a gear train, gear change, you depress the clutch again and pull the transmission into the desired gear, and keep going like that. So, that's basically what a clutch is. It's just a simple coupling device."