Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shozo Okuda

Masaki Inui

Shuji Nagano

Shuichiro Ida

Toshio Yoshinaka

Masaki Hosono

In a gear synchronizer mechanism including a gear member rotatable on a shaft and having a cylindrical hub portion, a hub member mounted on the shaft for rotation therewith, a clutch sleeve formed at its one side with an internal conical surface and at its inner periphery with internal spline teeth in continual engagement with external spline teeth of the hub member and being axially shiftable on the hub member to be engaged at its internal spline teeth with external spline teeth of the hub portion, and a synchronizer ring formed with an external conical surface for frictional engagement with the internal conical surface of the sleeve and being axially movable on the hub portion to establish synchronization between the shaft and the gear when engaged with the sleeve, the hub portion of the gear is formed at its inner periphery with an annular groove and has a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial grooves defined therein, each of which receives therein a corresponding radially movable key element, and the key elements are supported by a radially contractible annular spring disposed within the annular groove of the hub portion and are resiliently engaged with the ring under the biasing force of the spring in such a manner as to restrict axial movement of the ring in shifting operation of the clutch sleeve.

Gear synchronizer mechanism

A power transfer device includes an input shaft for connection to an output shaft of a power transmission, a first output shaft rotatably coupled at the inner end thereof with the input shaft, a second output shaft arranged in parallel with the input and first output shafts, an output member rotatably mounted on the first output shaft and being operatively connected to the second output shaft, a planetary gear unit mounted on the input shaft and having an input member connected with the input shaft and an output element for providing a low speed drive power train, a first sleeve member mounted on the first output shaft between the planetary gear unit and the output member and shiftable between a first position where the first sleeve member is retained to connect the first output shaft to the input shaft and a second position where the first sleeve member is retained to connect the first output shaft to the output element of the planetary gear unit, and a second sleeve member mounted on the first output shaft between the first sleeve member and the output member and shiftable between a first position where the second sleeve member is retained to connect the output member to the first output shaft and a second position where the second sleeve member is retained to disconnect the output member from the first output shaft.

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Toyota, Japan

Shozo Okuda