Geartrain

Geartrain
The geartrain consists of the planetary gearsets, apply components, final drive gearset and differential.

Planetary Gearset
The transaxle has 3 planetary gearsets to provide operation in reverse and 6 forward speeds.

The gearsets are comprised of these components:
^ Front sun gear (part of the front sun gear and shell assembly)
^ Front carrier
^ Front carrier ring gear
^ Center sun gear
^ Center carrier
^ Center carrier ring gear
^ Rear ring gear
^ Rear carrier
^ Rear sun gear and shell assembly





Turbine Shaft
The turbine shaft is part of the direct/overdrive clutch assembly and is splined to the torque converter stator. This allows input torque to be transmitted from the torque converter to the drive clutches and rear planetary carrier.

Output Shaft
The output shaft is splined to center planetary sun gear and the stator support transfer gear. This allows power flow from the planetary gearset to the final drive gearset.

Final Drive Gearset
The final drive consists of a planetary gearset that transfers and multiplies torque from the planetary gearsets to the differential.

The final drive consists of these components:
^ Transfer shaft and gear
^ Carrier (part of the differential case)
^ Ring gear

The sun gear is splined to the front ring gear and rear carrier of the planetary gearsets. The sun gear acts as the driving member and the carrier as the driven member. The ring gear is held stationary inside the case using lugged teeth.

Differential
The differential allows the halfshafts and wheels to rotate at different speeds during cornering and transfers power to the power transfer unit (PTU) for all wheel drive (AWD) vehicles.

The differential assembly consists of these components:
^ Differential case (part of the final drive carrier)
^ Two pinion gears supported by a pinion shaft
^ Two side gears supported by the differential case and halfshafts

When driving in a straight line, both front wheels rotate at relatively the same speed. This means both side gears are rotating at the same speed, as well, while both pinion gears revolve (but do not rotate) with the side gears. During cornering, the wheel on the outside of the turn is forced to rotate faster than the wheel on the inside of the turn. Since the side gears must now rotate at different speeds, the pinion gears rotate on the pinion shaft allowing the drive axles to rotate at different speeds while still transferring output torque.