It’s complicated ! Life, relationships, your job, your house, your car, its transmission. “Power from the engine drives the pistons. These pistons in turn drive the crankshaft which drives the flywheel”.
Flywheel, clutching mechanism, gearbox input shaft, main shaft, lay shaft, dog clutch, the differential etc etc. AND THAT’S JUST FOR MANUAL CARS!!!”
At RepairMyTransmission.com we’re about keeping things simple. So here goes … The engine sends power to the transmission which then powers the drive wheels. The transmission is the ‘bit in the middle’ controlling the speed and torque. All this is very finely synchronized. Think of it like cogs all interconnected driving one another. The cogs being the gears and the engine being what turns the cogs. Or if clutching mechanism, gearbox input shaft, main shaft etc., makes your head hurt just think of it as the ‘bit in the middle’ between the engine and the wheels.