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 BRAKES
When you depress your brake pedal, your car
transmits the force from your foot to its brakes
through a fluid. Since the actual brakes require
a much greater force than you could apply with
your leg, your car must also multiply the force
of your foot. It does this in two ways:
Mechanical Advantage and Hydraulic Force
Multiplication. The brakes transmit the force to
the tires using friction, and the tires
transmit that force to the road using friction
also.
MUFFLER
If you've ever heard a car engine running
without a muffler, you know what a huge
difference a muffler can make to the noise
level. Inside a muffler, you'll find a
deceptively simple set of tubes with some holes
in them. These tubes and chambers are actually
as finely tuned as a musical instrument. They
are designed to reflect the sound waves produced
by the engine in such a way that they partially
cancel themselves out.
Located inside the muffler is a set of tubes.
These tubes are designed to create reflected
waves that interfere with each other or cancel
each other out. The exhaust gases and the sound
waves enter through the center tube. They bounce
off the back wall of the muffler and are
reflected through a hole into the main body of
the muffler. They pass through a set of holes
into another chamber, where they turn and go out
the last pipe and leave the muffler.
A
chamber called a resonator is connected
to the first chamber by a hole. The resonator
contains a specific volume of air and has a
specific length that is calculated to produce a
wave that cancels out a certain frequency of
sound.
IGNITION
The ignition system on your car has to work in
perfect concert with the rest of the engine. The
goal is to ignite the fuel at exactly the right
time so that the expanding gases can do the
maximum amount of work. If the ignition system
fires at the wrong time, power will fall and gas
consumption and emissions can increase.
When the fuel/air mixture in the cylinder burns,
the temperature rises and the fuel is converted
to exhaust gas. This transformation causes the
pressure in the cylinder to increase
dramatically and forces the piston down.
FUSES
The
main job of the fuse
is to protect the wiring. Fuses should be
sized and located to protect the wire they are
connected to. If a device like your car radio
suddenly draws enough current to blow the fuse,
the radio is probably already toast. The fuse is
there to protect the wire, which would be much
harder to replace than the radio.
Most
cars have two fuse panels. The one in the
engine compartment holds the fuses for devices
like the cooling fans, the anti-lock brake pump
and the engine control unit -- all of which are
located in the engine compartment. Another fuse
panel, usually located in the dashboard near the
driver's knees, holds fuses for the devices and
switches located in the passenger compartment.
The most foolproof way to check a fuse is to
pull it out of its receptacle and hook up a
continuity tester to both blades of the
fuse. Economy Transmissions can help you check
your fuses fast and easy!
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