How do manual car gearboxes work?

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I’m a simracer, but I want to learn more about cars and eventually be able to work on them to some extent.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

#ELI5

Have you ever ridden a [bicycle with multiple gears](https://cyclejourneys.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Drivetrain.jpg)?

The rest of this answer is based on the assumption that you have had that experience.

So you already know that “however you set the gears” makes it easier to pedal up hills, or easier to go faster, basically you pick the gear that works best for your current situation.

If you ever took a closer look at the bike, you see there are actual gears ([rings with teeth on them](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51DsqnbrI6S._AC_.jpg)). In fact, that bicycle has several different sized rings in the back (at the wheels), and maybe another set of different sized gears in the front (at the pedals).

When you manually change gears, you’re selecting a different ring for the chain to go around.

Inside a car it’s kind of the same thing. The engine is “pedaling”, and there are gears with different numbers of teeth. Which gear you select means a different number of teeth are engaged, and it makes it easier to use the same force (like pedaling) to go up a hill slowly, or across a flat road more quickly.

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