Output shaft structure for shaft drive vehicle

Abstract

To easily perform a change between a four-wheel drive operation of a vehicle to a two-wheel drive operation of the vehicle. In a four-wheel buggy having the four-wheel drive specification in which a longitudinally mounted engine with a crank shaft is directed in the longitudinal direction of the vehicular body, an output shaft is divided into a main body portion and a front wheel connection portion. In the case of applying the output shaft structure to the four-wheel drive specification, a male spline formed on a front end portion of the main body portion is fitted in a female spline formed in a rear end portion of the front wheel connection portion. A front end portion of the front wheel connection portion projects forwardly from an outlet portion of a front case cover, and is connected to a front wheel propeller shaft. On the other hand, in the case of applying the output shaft structure to the two-wheel drive specification, the output shaft composed of only the main body portion to which the front wheel connection portion is not connected, can be commonly used, and the outlet portion of the front case cover may be left as cast, that is, without formation of the through-hole. Accordingly, it is possible to easily perform a change between the four-wheel drive specification and the two-wheel drive specification by commonly using the power unit case, except that only the front case cover requires a slight modification for the four-wheel drive specification.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.