Cardan drive

Cardan drive on a BMW R 68 with two cardan joints

Cardan shaft (center of picture, red) on a bus with an engine at the front and a driven rear axle

The shaft drive transmits in many motor vehicles , the torque from the transmission to the drive axle . The central component for this is the cardan shaft , a shaft with one or two cardan joints at the ends . In many car models it runs through a cardan tunnel , which can be seen from the passenger compartment of the vehicle as a bulge on the floor.

A shaft drive is common on cars that have front-engine and rear-wheel drive . Some motorcycles also have a shaft drive, but most have a chain drive.

The name is derived from the mathematician and doctor Gerolamo Cardano , who applied the kinematic principle on which the cardan joint is based in the cardanic suspension for astronomical instruments and the compass .

With bicycles there is an alternative to chain drive, which is also called cardan drive, although there is no cardan joint. At the ends of this shaft there is a bevel gear . In the case of wheels with a swinging rear fork, this rear swing arm has its axis of rotation in the drive axis of the front bevel gear. The corresponding bevel gear on the shaft and thus the shaft itself make a small secondary oscillating rotation when swinging, which negatively affects the drive of the rear wheel.

literature

• Hans Jörg Leyhausen: The master craftsman's examination in the automotive trade part 1. 12 edition, Vogel Buchverlag, Würzburg, 1991, ISBN 3-8023-0857-3
• Jan Drummans: The car and its technology. 1st edition, Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 1992, ISBN 3-613-01288-X