Abstract: A coupling disk is used in an engine with an output element rotatable about an axis and a drive train having an input element rotatable generally about the same axis. The disk has an inner ring of bores by means of which it is bolted to the output element an outer ring of bores by means of which it is bolted to the input element. The disk is formed with a plurality of radially outwardly projecting tabs separated by radially outwardly open cutouts and each formed with a respective one of the outer bores. The cutouts extend radially inward past regions of contact between the tabs and the input element and the tabs are each formed with generally tangentially extending corrugations.

Abstract: A hydraulic torque converter with a toroidal space bounded by a pump member, a turbine member and a free-wheeling stator has an inlet channel for fresh transmission fluid (oil) which opens into the pump torus at a location spaced from the pump member, preferably via the stator, whereby the relatively cool volume of newly admitted fluid mingles with the fluid already present instead of being immediately centrifugated toward the peripheries of the pump and turbine members from which it would quickly return to the sump. The inlet channel may include one or more radial passages in a spacer ring separating the stationary races of the journal bearings by which the pump member and the stator are supported on a trunnion rigid with the converter housing.

Abstract: A disk clutch inserted between a torque converter and a synchromesh gear train of an automotive transmission comprises a driving friction-plate carrier coupled with the turbine of the converter and a driven friction-plate carrier coupled with an input shaft of the gear train, the driving carrier forming two fluidically separated concentric cylinder spaces between itself and an operating piston embraced thereby. The inner cylinder is of smaller effective area and is pressurized in normal operation by hydraulic fluid (oil) but can be temporarily depressurized, during gear shifting, by a valve controlled by the shifting mechanism; this space communicates via an internal flow channel of the driving carrier with a radial bore in that carrier occupied by a centrifugally and/or resiliently loaded body of a quick-venting valve normally blocking an exit port leading from the outer cylinder space to the interior of a surrounding housing.