Differential and drive pinion assembly
AssigneeMeritor Do Brasil, S.A.
InventorsCarlos E. Pinotti, I-Chao Chung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved mount for a drive pinion to drive a gear differential includes a tapered bearing (54, 58) mounted at both inner and outer ends of the drive pinion (24). The tapered bearing (54) at the inner shaft portion (55) supports the drive pinion in a housing (50) which abuts an outer race of a bearing (48) which supports one of the side gears (46). The use of the tapered bearing (54) at the inner end of the drive pinion provides smaller packaging requirements for the overall assembly, and provides a more secure mount for the inner end of the drive pinion.
Claims6
A differential and drive pinion assembly comprising:
- a differential including a differential case having a drive gear fixed to an outer periphery, said differential case including two side gears and a spider gear for driving said side gears received within said differential case;
- a fixed housing surrounding said differential case;
- a drive pinion having gear teeth engaging said drive gear of said differential case, said drive pinion including inner and outer shaft portions extending from said drive pinion teeth away from said differential case, tapered bearings mounted on each of said inner and outer drive pinion shaft portions to support said drive pinion within said fixed housing;
- and said differential case includes a pair of opposed side gears driving opposed axle shafts to define an axis, and said differential case driving a spider shaft, differential pinion gears engaging said side gears to rotate said side gears, said spider shaft defining an axis which is parallel but offset to the axis defined by said drive pinion, and said spider shaft extending radially outwardly such that an outer end extends from an axis defined by the side gears for a greater distance than said tapered bearing mounted on said inner drive pinion shaft portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.