Steyr-Daimler-Puch Ag

Chrysler Motors Corporation

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Karl Friedrich

Dugald Cameron

Noboru Ashikawa

Heribert Lanzer

Peter Resele

Herwig Leinfellner

Jurgen Stockmar

Klaus Eder

Rudolf Zmugg

Othmar Zwanzigleitner

Franz Bachhiesl

A front transaxle for an all-wheel drive motor vehicle wherein the housing of an interaxle differential is operatively connected to a shiftable transmission and, via a tubular shaft, drives one bevel gear of an angle drive. The other angle drive bevel gear is operatively connected to a longitudinal propeller shaft for driving the rear axle. One front wheel drive shaft extends from the interaxle differential through the tubular shaft. The housing of the angle drive is connected by a flanged joint to the transmission outer housing. The arrangement permits the differential and angle drive subassemblies to be manufactured and tested at different locations while preventing the mixing of lubricants between the two subassemblies upon their assembly into the transaxle.

Front axle for an all-wheel drive vehicle

A chassis frame crossbeam assembly for a four wheel drive motor vehicle comprising a lower crossmember and an upper bridge member fixed thereon. The crossmember intermediate portion being downwardly depressed formed with a thinned valley section. The bridge member having a hollow-section including an intermediate bifurcated portion in the form of fore and aft upwardly arched branch sections with end extensions welded on either side of the crossmember thinned valley section. The vertically opposed bridge member branch sections and crossmember depression combine to define a through passage for a longitudinal drive shaft for driving the rear wheels. The bridge member branch sections define a free open channel therebetween adapted to receive a transverse tube portion of the steering assembly therethrough arranged with its principal axis orthogonal to the principal axis of the subjacent longitudinal drive shaft.

Frame crossbeam assembly for all-wheel drive vehicle

A drive line assembly and mounting arrangement for converting a front engine front wheel drive vehicle to an on-demand four wheel drive system. The vehicle rear axle is adapted to be selectively driven by means of a viscous fluid coupling positioned intermediate a forward angled universal-joint drive line assembly and a rear torque tube enclosed longitudinal propeller shaft assembly. An overrunning clutch is rigidly connected intermediate a forwardly extending neck portion of the rear axle drive housing and the torque tube defines a composite torque tube structure. The overrunning clutch is adapted to be locked for a transmission of torque during normal driving. The rear axle drive housing is sprung from the frame by a pair of transversely aligned isolation mounts while the composite torque tube is resiliently secured by a bracket support adjacent its forward end. The composite torque tube provides an extended lever arm of a predetermined length that oscillates in a vertical plane about the transverse axis of the pair of rear mounts whereby the reaction torque vibrations from the rear axle drive imparted to the forward resilient bracket support are effectively dampened.

All-wheel drive vehicle power train

An axle drive bevel gear differential arrangement for a motor vehicle is disclosed having a two part differential case including a main part and an end closure part. A ring gear is coaxially mounted on the part and has a hidden end face which faces the differential case parts and has an outside crown point diameter only slightly larger than the outside diameter of the differential case. A plurality of threaded machine bolts extend through aligned bores in said case parts for threaded reception in blind bores in said ring gear hidden end face so as to secure the two case parts and the ring gear together in a compact minimal diameter arrangement.

Axle drive differential for motor vehicles

A shaft coupling comprises two coupling members, which are connected or adapted to be connected to respective shafts. One of the two coupling members is provided on a coupling face with an even number of bores, which have a uniform angular spacing and are either parallel to the axis of rotation of the coupling or radial with respect to said axis. A piston is slidably mounted in each bore and has a coupling end face with is beveled or crowned. Hydraulic lines are provided for applying fluid pressure to each piston at its rear end. The other coupling member is provided on a coupling face with an annular series of alternating elevations and depressions, which also have a uniform angular spacing. By the application of hydraulic pressure to the rear end faces of the pistons, the coupling end faces of the pistons are urged against the elevations and depressions. To permit a control of the torque transmission capacity of the coupling so that said capacity can be decreased to zero and to ensure that the torque transmission capacity will be independent of the slip between surfaces in frictional contact and of any change of the viscosity of a liquid, the bores are arranged in pairs of diametrically opposite bores and the bores of each pair communicate with each other through a hydraulic line, which is permanently filled with a hydraulic liquid. A controllable throttle valve is associated with each of said hydraulic lines. Adjacent ones of said elevations and depressions merge into each other.

Hydraulically controlled shaft coupling

A motor vehicle having at least two live axles is driven by an engine having an output shaft which is transverse to the direction of travel of the vehicle. That engine is succeeded by a change-speed transmission having shafts which are parallel to the output shaft of the engine. The change-speed transmission drives one live axle via a spur gear train and drives the second live axle via a first angle drive that is operatively connected to the spur gear drive, a second angle drive that is operatively connected to the second live axle, and a universal-joint shaft interconnected between the first and second angle drives. To permit the input shaft of the first angle drive to be arranged as close as possible to the change-speed transmission without an increase of the driving pinion of the second angle drive in diameter, a planetary gear train is interconnected between the first angle drive and the universal-joint shaft.

Driving mechanism for motor vehicles having at least two live axles

A drive system for motor vehicles having a motor which has an axis that is transverse to the direction of travel of the vehicle comprises either a manually operable change-speed transmission which is disposed substantially beside the motor, or an automatic change-speed transmission which is coaxial to the drive shafts of the front axle. The change-speed transmission is operatively connected to the front axle differential of the vehicle, optionally via idler gears, and is operatively connected by an angle drive to a shaft which leads to and is operatively connected to the rear axle. The front axle differential is driven in known manner by a planetary gear train which has three torque-transmitting members, one of which is restrained by a preferably controllable liquid friction coupling, one coupling half of which is held against rotation, and the front axle differential, the planetary gear train, the liquid friction coupling and the angle drive are combined in a subassembly, which in dependence on the kind of the change-speed transmission is driven by idler gears having different transmission ratios.

Drive system for motor vehicles

A temperature compensating fluid friction clutch is disclosed. The fluid friction clutch comprises a housing substantially filled with a viscous fluid, a shaft disposed within the housing, and mutually interengaging inner and outer plates connected to the shaft and housing for rotation about an axis within the housing. Spacers are located in the gaps between the plates, while the plates are axially displaceable so as to vary the size of the gaps. Temperature responsive elements are also provided to compensate for any reduction in the fluid viscosity when the temperature of the fluid rises. The temperature responsive elements, which may be in various forms, act to decrease the size of the gaps between the inner and outer plates when the temperature of the viscous fluid rises. In one embodiment, the temperature responsive elements comprise an expansion element connected to the inner and outer plates and which expands upon an increase in temperature. In another embodiment, the spacers comprise the temperature responsive elements. In this embodiment, the spacers are in the form of bimetallic conical rings which contract in an axial direction upon an increase in temperature.

Temperature compensating fluid friction clutch

A transmission for a motor vehicle comprises a multispeed change gear set comprising a plurality of loose spur gears and a plurality of fixed spur gears, each of which is permanently in mesh with one of the loose spur gears. The transmission comprises a second gear set, which is adapted to be selectively driven by the change gear set. The change gear set comprises an input shaft and two gear set output shafts. The loose spur gears for relatively low speeds are rotatably mounted on and adapted to be coupled to the first gear set output shaft. The loose spur gears for relatively high speeds are rotatably mounted on and adapted to be coupled to the second gear set output shaft. To simplify the structure and to reduce the overall size of the transmission in the direction of the input and output shafts, an additional spur gear is non-rotatably mounted on each gear set output shaft and is in mesh with a common idler gear, which is adapted to be coupled to a pinion, which is in mesh with a final output gear. The second gear set comprises a large spur gear and a small spur gear, which are adapted to be coupled to each other. The large spur gear is permanently in mesh with the additional spur gear mounted on the second gear set output shaft. The small spur gear is permanently in mesh with the final output gear. The two clutches between the idler gear and the pinion which is coaxial thereto and between the large and small spur gears can be engaged and disengaged only in mutually opposite senses.

Transmission, particularly for cross-country motor vehicles

A driving gear for all-wheel-drive vehicles, comprises a transmission provided with a plurality of shafts parallel with an axis of a vehicle. An interaxle differential gear has an axis parallel with the shafts in the transmission and adapted to output the driving force from the transmission in a divided manner. An interwheel differential gear is provided concentrically with the interaxle differential gear and adapted to apply one output therefrom in a divided manner to right and left wheels which are closer to the transmission. A bevel gear train is interposed between a driving shaft and the interaxle differential gear. The driving shaft is provided so as to cross the axes of the two differential gears at right angles thereto and apply the other output from the interaxle differential gear to right and left wheels which are more distant from the transmission. Finally, a housing is provided in which all the parts are held. The housing consists of a combination of a plurality of sections of which all of the boundary surfaces extend in parallel with one another and at right angles to the axes of the shafts in the transmission.

Housing for a driving gear for all-wheel-drive vehicles

A four wheel drive gear box having a planetary internal differential concentric with a reduction gear driven by an output gear of a transmission, a planetary carrier driven by the reduction gear, a ring gear driving a first shaft concentric with the reduction gear, a sun gear driving a second shaft which carries a gear which drives, via other gearing, an inter-wheel differential, the first shaft driving the other inter-wheel differential, a support member enclosing the inter-axle differential and connected with the reduction gear, and a connecting member between the ring gear and the first shaft.

Growing community of inventors

Leibnitz, Austria

Karl Friedrich