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How Torque Converters Work

A torque converter allows an automatic transmission vehicle to come to a complete stop without stalling the engine. It contains a pump, turbine, and stator that use transmission fluid to transfer power from the engine to the transmission through hydraulic pressure. The stator redirects fluid returning from the turbine to improve efficiency. At higher speeds, the transmission and engine rotate at similar speeds, reducing losses, but torque converters still multiply engine torque for better acceleration from a stop.

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2K views

How Torque Converters Work

A torque converter allows an automatic transmission vehicle to come to a complete stop without stalling the engine. It contains a pump, turbine, and stator that use transmission fluid to transfer power from the engine to the transmission through hydraulic pressure. The stator redirects fluid returning from the turbine to improve efficiency. At higher speeds, the transmission and engine rotate at similar speeds, reducing losses, but torque converters still multiply engine torque for better acceleration from a stop.

Uploaded by

Izi
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How Torque Converters Work

If you've read about manual transmissions, you know that an engine is
connected to a transmission by way of a clutch. Without this
connection, a car would not be able to come to a complete stop
without killing the engine. But cars with an aut­omatic
transmission have no clutch that disconnects the transmission from
the engine. Instead, they use an amazing device called a torque
converter. It may not look like much, but there are some very
interesting things going on inside.
In this article, we'll learn why automatic transmission cars need a

torque converter, how a torque converter works and what some of its
benefits and shortcomings are.
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•
•

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 Torque converters make automatic transmission possible.

The Basics
 Just like manual transmission cars, cars with automatic transmissions need a
way to let the engine turn while the wheels and gears in the transmission
come to a stop. Manual transmission cars use a clutch, which completely
disconnects the engine from the transmission. Automatic transmission cars
use a torque converter.

 The torque converter is situated between the engine


and the transmission.

A torque converter is a type of fluid coupling, which allows

the engine to spin somewhat independently of the


transmission. If the engine is turning slowly, such as when
the car is idling at a stoplight, the amount of torque passed
through the torque converter is very small, so keeping the
car still requires only a light pressure on the brake pedal.

If you were to step on the gas pedal while the car is stopped,

you would have to press harder on the brake to keep the car
from moving. This is because when you step on the gas, the
engine speeds up and pumps more fluid into the torque
converter, causing more torque to be transmitted to the
wheels.

Inside a Torque Converter
As shown in the figure below, there are four components inside the very
strong housing of the torque converter: Pump
• Turbine
• Stator
• Transmission fluid
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•
•
•
•
•
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•
The parts of a torque converter (left to right): turbine, stator, pump


 The housing of the torque converter is bolted to the flywheel of the engine, so
it turns at whatever speed the engine is running at. The fins that make up
the pump of the torque converter are attached to the housing, so they also
turn at the same speed as the engine. The cutaway below shows how
everything is connected inside the torque converter.

 How the parts of the torque converter connect to the


transmission and engine
 The pump inside a torque converter is a type of centrifugal pump. As it spins,
fluid is flung to the outside, much as the spin cycle of a washing machine
flings water and clothes to the outside of the wash tub. As fluid is flung to
the outside, a vacuum is created that draws more fluid in at the center.

 The pump section of the torque converter is attached to the


housing.
The fluid then enters the blades of the turbine, which is connected to the

transmission. The turbine causes the transmission to spin, which basically


moves your car. You can see in the graphic below that the blades of the
turbine are curved. This means that the fluid, which enters the turbine from
the outside, has to change direction before it exits the center of the turbine.
It is this directional change that causes the turbine to spin.

 The torque converter turbine: Note the spline in the middle. This is where
 it connects to the transmission

In order to change the direction of a moving object, you must apply a force to that object -- it
doesn't matter if the object is a car or a drop of fluid. And whatever applies the force that
causes the object to turn must also feel that force, but in the opposite direction. So as the
turbine causes the fluid to change direction, the fluid causes the turbine to spin.
The fluid exits the turbine at the center, moving in a different direction than when it entered. If

you look at the arrows in the figure above, you can see that the fluid exits the turbine moving
opposite the direction that the pump (and engine) are turning. If the fluid were allowed to hit
the pump, it would slow the engine down, wasting power. This is why a torque converter has a
stator.
We'll take a closer look at the stator in the next section.


The Stator
 The stator resides in the very center of the torque converter. Its job is to
redirect the fluid returning from the turbine before it hits the pump again.
This dramatically increases the efficiency of the torque converter.

 The stator sends the fluid returning from the turbine to the pump. This
improves the efficiency of the torque converter. Note the spline, which
is connected to a one­way clutch inside the stator.


The stator has a very aggressive blade design that almost

completely reverses the direction of the fluid. A one-way


clutch (inside the stator) connects the stator to a fixed shaft in
the transmission (the direction that the clutch allows the stator
to spin is noted in the figure above). Because of this
arrangement, the stator cannot spin with the fluid -- it can spin
only in the opposite direction, forcing the fluid to change
direction as it hits the stator blades.

Something a little bit tricky happens when the car gets moving.

There is a point, around 40 mph (64 kph), at which both the


pump and the turbine are spinning at almost the same speed
(the pump always spins slightly faster). At this point, the fluid
returns from the turbine, entering the pump already moving in
the same direction as the pump, so the stator is not needed.

Even though the turbine changes the direction of the fluid and

flings it out the back, the fluid still ends up moving in the
direction that the turbine is spinning because the turbine is
spinning faster in one direction than the fluid is being pumped
in the other direction. If you were standing in the back of a
pickup moving at 60 mph, and you threw a ball out the back of
that pickup at 40 mph, the ball would still be going forward at
20 mph. This is similar to what happens in the turbine: The
fluid is being flung out the back in one direction, but not as
fast as it was going to start with in the other direction.

At these speeds, the fluid actually strikes the back sides of the

stator blades, causing the stator to freewheel on its one-way


clutch so it doesn't hinder the fluid moving through it.

Benefits and Weak Points
In addition to the very important job of allowing your car come to a complete
stop without stalling the engine, the torque converter actually gives your
car more torque when you accelerate out of a stop. Modern torque
converters can multiply the torque of the engine by two to three times. This
effect only happens when the engine is turning much faster than the
transmission. At higher speeds, the transmission catches up to the engine,
eventually moving at almost the same speed. Ideally, though, the
transmission would move at exactly the same speed as the engine, because
this difference in speed wastes power. This is part of the reason why cars
with automatic transmissions get worse gas mileage than cars with manual
transmissions.
To counter this effect, some cars have a torque converter with a lockup

clutch. When the two halves of the torque converter get up to speed, this
clutch locks them together, eliminating the slippage and improving
efficiency.
For more information on torque converters and related topics, check out the

links on the next page.



Related HowStuffWorks Articles

• How Car Engines Work


• How Automatic Transmissions Work
• How Horsepower Works
• How Gears Work
• How Clutches Work
• How Force, Power, Torque and Energy Work
• How do you convert engine torque to horsepower?

 More Great Links

• How the Converter Works


• How a Torque Converter Works
• Torque Converter FAQ
• Torque Converter Applications
• ProTorque: Custom Built Torque Converters
• Installation of a Torque Converter
• Professional Mechanics Online
• Auto.com
• A Short Course on Automatic Transmissions

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