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US 4,605,087 AGranted
All-wheel drive system for vehicles
AssigneeVolkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsKarl Ashauer, Bernd Richter, Manfred Kalversberg, Rudiger Schmidt
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AssigneeVolkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft
InventorsKarl Ashauer, Bernd Richter, Manfred Kalversberg, Rudiger Schmidt
Estimating the term…
In the particular embodiments described in the specification, an all-wheel drive system is disclosed wherein either the wheels of both the front axle and the rear axle of a vehicle are driven continuously and the front axle and rear axle can be rigidly coupled with each other, or wherein the wheels of only one axle are driven continuously while the drive for the wheels of the second axle can be obtained automatically by means of a viscosity clutch arranged in the driving train between the front axle and the rear axle so that the front and the rear axles are coupled with each other essentially rigidly according to the torque. In addition, one or more coupling devices are provided which are constructed so that a decrease in the rotational speed of the front wheels, caused in particular by the actuation of the service brake, cannot be transmitted through the driving train to the rear wheels.
In an all-wheel drive system for a vehicle comprising a front axle with front wheels and a rear axle with rear wheels, the front wheels being continuously driven by a conventional live axle drive comprising a positive differential gear and the rear wheels being automatically driven with said front wheels by a drive train having viscous fluid coupling means therein, the improvement comprising at least one coupling means in said drive train responsive to the direction of a torque applied thereto to automatically interrupt said drive train so as to prevent braking effects on the front wheels from being transmitted to the rear wheels by way of the drive train.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.