Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc.

Norman E Schultz

James Preston Downs

Joen Christen Bodtker

Charles L Rasmer

Douglas B Lutz

Dale A Frank

A drive axle assembly has a gear housing, two axle tubes extending outwardly of the gear housing, a lubricant reservoir in the gear housing and a gear assembly rotatably mounted in the gear housing that has a rotatable member that is partially disposed in lubricant in the lubricant reservoir. The drive axle assembly also has a lubricant cooling system that includes a lubricant passage in fluid communication with the lubricant reservoir via an inlet that is juxtaposed the rotatable member so that the level of lubricant in the lubricant passage is raised when the rotatable member rotates. The lubricant passage has elevated outlets that deliver lubricant to lubricant ducts disposed in the respective axle tubes when the lubricant in the lubricant passage rises above a predetermined level. The lubricant flows away from the gear housing in the lubricant ducts and returns to the reservoir along the interior of the axle tubes which cools the lubricant as it returns to the reservoir.

Drive axle assembly with lubricant cooling system

A differential in a motor vehicle drive axle includes a barrel shaped case and a ring gear. The case has an outer cylindrical boss and an adjacent smaller inner cylindrical boss. The ring gear has a flat side facing the case, a plurality of self-cutting straight splines around the center of the ring gear, and a counterbore in the flat side concentric with the self-cutting splines. The self-cutting splines have a major diameter corresponding to the diameter of the inner boss so that when the ring gear is forcibly moved to an assembled position on the case, the self-cutting splines form in situ on the inner boss a plurality of mating straight splines in mesh with the self-cutting splines. The depth of the counterbore is coordinated with the length of the inner boss to achieve penetration of the outer boss into the counterbore at the time the self-cutting splines engage the inner bore so that a closed chip trap is defined ahead of the self-cutting splines.

Differential case with ring gear attachment

Growing community of inventors

Saginaw, MI, United States of America

Norman E Schultz