Phase control mechanism

A phase control mechanism for an internal combustion engine for changing the timing between a cam shaft of the internal combustion engine and a crank shaft of the internal combustion engine to thereby vary valve timing within the internal combustion engine, said mechanism including;

• a planet cage connectable to the cam shaft;
• at least one first bevel gear carried by the planet cage;
• an input element couplable to the crank shaft for rotation by the crank shaft;
• a second bevel gear carried by the input element and meshing with the first bevel gear carried by the planet cage;
• a third bevel gear meshing with the first bevel gear carried by the planet cage;
• a phase adjusting means connected to the third bevel gear;
• wherein when the mechanism is installed in the engine and the crank shaft is rotated rotation is supplied to the input element to in turn rotate the second bevel gear carried by the input element and the first bevel gear carried by the planet cage so that the planet cage rotates to in turn rotate the cam shaft, and wherein to change the phase relationship and therefore valve timing of the engine, the phase adjusting means is actuated to rotate the third bevel gear so as to advance or regress the first bevel gear connected to the planet cage to advance or regress the planet cage and therefore the cam shaft relative to the crank shaft.

An internal combustion engine including;

• a crank shaft for supplying rotary power;
• at least one cam shaft for opening and closing valves in the internal combustion engine;
• a phase control mechanism coupled between the crank shaft and the at least one cam shaft and having;
• (a) a first gear member coupled to the cam shaft;
• (b) drive means for transmitting rotary power from the crank shaft to the cam shaft to rotate the cam shaft when the crank shaft rotates;
• (c) a phase adjusting means for causing the first gear member to advance or regress;
• and
• means for actuating the phase adjusting means to thereby cause the first gear member to advance or regress to change the phase relationship between the crank shaft and the cam shaft.

A clutch mechanism for use with a phase controller for selectively shutting off drive to an output. This aspect of the invention may be said to reside in a clutch mechanism for a phase control mechanism, including:

• an input;
• an output;
• phase control means between the input and the output for controlling a phase relationship;
• a rotary member for rotation with the phase control member;
• and
• stop means for selectively stopping rotation of the rotary member so that drive is transmitted to the output for releasing the rotary member for rotation so drive is transmitted to the rotary member rather than to the output to provide a clutching operation between the input and the output.