Reel driving apparatus for a videocassette recorder

In a reel driving apparatus for a videocassette recorder comprising a base plate, a supply reel and a take-up reel rotatably mounted on the base plate, and an idler disposed between the supply reel and the take-up reel for transmitting selectively its driving force to either the supply reel or the take-up reel, the idler including a pulley driven by a driving pulley of a capstan motor via a belt, a driving gear coupled to a shaft of the driven pulley, a first and a second driven gears meshed with the driving gear and to be selectively engaged with the supply reel and the take-up reel, respectively, and an idler bracket for supporting the first and second gears, the improvement comprising:

• a first and a second swing arms rotatably pivoted at respective first and a second pins of the base plate and associated with the idler bracket for selectively shifting the idler counterclockwise and clockwise to thereby cause the first driven gear to engage with the supply reel and the second driven gear to engage with the take-up reel, respectively;
• means for biasing the second swing arm counterclockwise to cause the idler to be shifted clockwise;
• a slide plate slidably mounted at guide pins of the base plate for actuating the first and the second swing arms;
• and
• a cam gear for moving the slide plate in the forward and backward directions through an actuating lever, wherein the actuating lever is rotatably mounted at a pivot pin of the base plate at a middle portion thereof, one end of the lever being pivoted to one end of the slide plate and the other end being located in a cam groove of the cam gear.