Lay Shafts

Lay Shafts

The output from the engine is sent to the gearbox using a clutch shaft. This shaft allows to engage and disengage the engine output. Lay shafts are used to transfer power from the engine to the main shaft by continuously meshing the lay shaft gear with the clutch shaft gear. A layshaft is an intermediate shaft within a gearbox that carries gears, but does not transfer the primary drive of the gearbox either in or out of the gearbox. Layshafts are best known through their use in car gearboxes, where they were a ubiquitous part of the rear-wheel drive layout. With the shift to front-wheel drive, the use of layshafts is now rarer.