Hayes
Auto Transmission
It all began in
America when a Frank Anderson Hayes who lived in Middletown,
Monmouth, New Jersey USA. began experimenting with a method of
transmitting power at a variable speed, but at the maximum torque.
He filed no less than six patents in America under the heading
Hayes Variable Speed Power Transmission on the 7 May 1929, and then
in the UK on the 2 September 1929. Two years later he again applied
for further Patents, this time under the heading,
Improvements in or Relating to Variable Speed Power
Transmission.
I would appear that Frank Hayes, who came over to England in the
late 1920s and through a chance meeting with Captain J.L.
Cloudsley, who owned his own engineering company at 5, Chancery
Lane, London. Captain Cloudsley suggested that Hayes should make
contact with Herbert Austin. A meeting was set up between the three
parties, when it was agreed to work together to improve the system,
with Hayes building the gearboxes in America and supplying them to
Cloudsley Engineering, who would act as an agent for the UK.
Although the system was covered by USA patents, It was agreed that
the transmission need to be covered by a UK patent, so in August
1932 patent number GB410151 was taken out by Cloudsley Engineering
Co. Ltd.
After the supplying various prototypes boxes for evaluation at
Longbridge, The Austin Motor Co. Ltd signed an agreement with FA
Hayes & Cloudsley Engineering Co. Ltd. for them to supply the
automatic gearboxes. I am sure that the agreement that Austin
signed up to would have stipulated a minimum quantity. It was not
until late 1933 that the transmissions became an optional on the
Westminster and the York saloon with either the 16hp or 18hp
engines.
Hayes
transmission installation
York
Saloon
It appears that
the optional Hayes gearbox was first available on the York saloon
at around November 1933. Publicity at that time stated that the
Hayes box would cost an extra £40. The early production models had
two levers on the steering column which would allow the driver to
modify how the transmission would operate. This proved in practise
to be a problem, as the driver was confused which position the two
leavers should be in to optimise the transmission for the type of
road condition. So this arrangement was changed for the 1935 model
year, in that it now only had one lever.
This lever had a "Cold" starting position, the next position went
from Low to High, with the last position been used if you were
driving in traffic.
Westminster
Saloon
With the MKII
version along came an increase of £10 for the transmission at £50.
This made a York ex-works price including the Hayes transmission to
£368 for the 16 hp version and £378 for the 18 hp. The Westminster
was more expensive at £388 for 16 hp and £398 for the 18 hp. With
the revised box now available Austin spent a great deal of money on
advertising.
This is how the company portrayed the Hayes
transmission.
The advent of the Hayes Self-selector Transmission is a development
of the first importance in the history of the motor car, and for
the following reasons.
Dependability
It
is not an experiment in a new sphere of dynamics. It is a new
application of an old and tried principle, and, as such, the proved
product of years of intensive research and experiment.
Simplification
It is a
simplification, not a complication of the transmission. It
dispenses with all gears (except to give reverse) and all clutch
operations (except when starting and stopping). There is no noise;
the drive is practically silent.
Infinitely
Variable
It
provides infinite variable engine-speed to road-wheel-speed ratios
within the limits of its range. There are no gaps in the ratios.
The variation is continuous and is fully automatic, yet the driver
can, at will, modify its action to give instantly any special road
performance desired.
An
Entirely New Sensation
It brings to
motoring an entirely new sensation of control, a delightful mastery
over all road conditions.
Sadly the public did not take to it, even though the Press and
people who owned one, spoke highly.
Only about fifty were sold, there were probable two main reasons
for poor sales. First it was not strictly a fully automatic
transmission as you still had a clutch when starting off and had to
us it to disengaged when coming to a halt. The extra cost add
nearly 16% to the normal price of the car, this was too higher a
price to pay. The actual cost of producing the box was high because
of the tight tolerances in the machining and grinding the discs and
rollers which had to be made with great accuracy. If a fault
occurred in the transmission, the agents were not allowed to
service the unit, and a replacement box would be fitted at a cost
of £50. The units were assembled at Longbridge, from kits which
were probable supplied by Cloudsley Engineering Co. Ltd for the
main castings etc, but I am sure that the toroidal
and
rollers would have been supplied by Frank Hayes himself. According
to an apprentice of the time, there was one fitter assembling the
new units and one stripping the returned faulty units for
repair.
The
main problem with the transmission tended to appear around 10,000
miles, when the unit would refuse to change ratios. This was
usually caused because the driver did not understand that to get
the best out of the unit your needed to adjust the manual lever on
the steering wheel. So what happened was the the rollers in contact
with the toroidal would only move through a small arc, this meant
that over time wear would take place and the transmission would
fail. On the maintenance side a special transmission oil was to be
used tinted GREEN and called Drivex, this had to be checked every
2,000 to 3,000 miles, and the filter removed from the hydraulic
control unit and cleaned ever 5,000 miles.
It was rumoured
at the time that General Motors paid Hayes and Austin a large sum
to cease their experiments. Knudsen the director of General Motors
did pay the Hayes Company $20.000 over three years for the
manufacturing rights in the US, but this option was never taken
up.
_________________
Various Press Comments
The
Automobile Engineer
The ideal solution of the transmission problem, giving as it does a
smooth variation of gear ratio between its two limits, and
providing at the top end a very substantial overdrive. Probably one
of the best features of the gear is the character of the control,
for any driver who dislikes absolute automaticity can, in a moment,
by the move-ment of a lever, change the drive into one over which
he has complete control of ratios irrespective of engine torque or
speed, and he is able to strike any compromise between the two
extremes.
Sheffield
Daily Independent
I have been
driving the world's most remarkable car. In a hundred miles journey
in town and country, batting alongthe bypasses at 60, crawling
through London's heaviest traffic and stopping and starting on
hills, every drivingcondition was met without a change of gear. It
was no hundred horse-power car either. Just a big-bodied
31hundredweight Austin Saloon powered with a modest side-valve "
six " of 18 h.p. The biggest-engined car in theworld could not beat
this Austin as a " one-gear " car, or even approach its astonishing
flexibility.
Customers letter to the company.
16th November 1935
In March last I purchased an 18 h.p. York Saloon (CMH 252) with
Hayes
transmission and perhaps you would like to know how much I
appreciate this form of transmission. On long journeys it makes
driving far less fatiguing and in traffic saves all bother of gear
changing. Turning into a main road is easier because speed can be
reduced almost to a standstill without any trouble from the engine.
A good view of the road both ways can usually be obtained without
throwing out the clutch and there is no gear changing before or
after turning. A striking feature is the very rapid acceleration
especially from a standing start. I find that at traffic lights,
for instance, I leave other cars far behind on re-starting and the
rapid acceleration is also useful for slipping past other cars in
traffic.
A very important advantage of this transmission is the increased
m.p.g.
Before I purchased my present car I had an exactly similar car
without the
Hayes transmission. For each car I kept for some months after
purchase very careful check on petrol consumption and I find that
the Hayes transmission gives an extra 3-31 m.p.g.
"After my experience of the Hayes transmission I should be sorry to
go back to the ordinary gearbox."
Yours faithfully,
MT
_______________________
For
those of you who are interested on how the system works, read
on.
I
have tried to keep it simple
Toroidal
It
is this unique shape that allows the gearbox to work
The Toroidal A
is driven by the engine through a normal clutch.
This is the
roller that transmits the power from A to
B
_____Consider
this roller like a ball bearing that has the top and
_____bottom
part removed. this is then held in the centre by an arm
_____that
can rotate it radially.
The Toroidal B
is the output from the gearbox
This is the link
from B to the output shaft
Output
shaft
Please note that I have removed all the operating mechanism for
clarity.
Because the
drive plates are horizontal, and making contact at the same radius
from the centre-line of the shafts Toroidal A and Toroidal B, then
the input RPM from the engine which drives (A), will make (B) the
output shaft rotate at the same speed but in the
opposite direction (See Note A).
Low
Ratio __________________
High
Ratio
If the drive
plates are tilted as above, then we can get a low ratio for moving
away from rest. Or if tilled the other way we get a high ratio for
cruising.
In this box the Low gear ratio is 4 : 1 and in High ratio for every
rev of the engine the output shaft of the gearbox will rotate 1.7
revs.
When first
moving off, you have to use the clutch as normal, putting the gear
lever into the forward position. Remember that this box was not
fully automatic, but once moving away from rest it would change up
or down according to the engine power output and road conditions.
Because optimum ratios selected by the box were selected
automatically according to the varying road condition. It would
always select the highest ratio possible so that engine speed would
be around the rev-range that the maximum torque was been produced.
So even if the road speed increased the engine speed and noise
level remained the same. Some drives found this strange at first,
but the big advantage was that the engine was working at
optimum
efficiency, so miles per
gallon were greatly increased.
For reverse it was a conventional set-up, using the clutch and
putting into reverse gear and controlling the speed of the car with
the throttle.
Note
A. As
the output shaft from the box is rotating the opposite way,
compared to a conventional gearbox, it was necessary to modify the
differential to correct this. So the crown-wheel needed to be
rotated 180 degrees.
____
Normal
Arrangement _____________Hayes
Version
If
anybody reading this article has any more information on the Hayes
gearbox, or knows of one still in existence, please contact
me.