JPH0445705B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a differential device mounted on a vehicle.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a differential device has been used in a vehicle to provide a rotation difference between left and right drive wheels when turning. This differential device includes, for example, a pair of side gears and a pair of pinion gears, each of the pair of side gears being rotatably mounted in a differential device housing to face each other, and a pair of pinion gears. It is known that each gear is engaged with a pair of side gears and is rotatably mounted in a differential housing so as to face each other.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above-mentioned known differential device, the differential device does not operate when there is no rotation difference between the left and right drive wheels, such as when driving in a straight line, and simply transmits the driving force from the internal combustion engine to the left and right drive wheels. Therefore, while the vehicle is running, in a state where the inertia of the vehicle and the driving force from the internal combustion engine are almost balanced (especially when running under low load), there is a gap between the side gear and the pinion gear. When there is play (so-called bump crash), torque fluctuations from the internal combustion engine cause a knocking sound between the two gears due to the impact of both gears (tooth crackling sound), and this hitting sound is heard by the driver. This caused discomfort.

Therefore, in order to eliminate the knocking noise caused by the bump crash, a differential device has been proposed in which a thrust washer is disposed between the differential device housing and each side gear.

In this case, the thrust washer can substantially eliminate bumps between the side gear and pinion gear and prevent the occurrence of hammering sounds. However, when installing the thrust washer,
First, assemble a pair of side gears and a pair of pinion gears into the differential housing and measure the meshing condition (usually using a gauge etc.) ) and then,
These had to be disassembled and thrust washers of appropriate thickness had to be installed, making it time consuming and complicated to assemble the differential. In particular, if there is still a thrust washer after the differential has been assembled, it will be necessary to disassemble it again and replace it with a thrust washer of a different thickness.
The work was extremely complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above facts, and its purpose is to provide an improved differential device that is easy to assemble and allows external adjustment of the meshing state between the side gear and the pinion gear. It's about doing.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the configuration of the present invention is as follows:
A position adjusting member is provided on the rear surface of the pair of side gears that mesh with the pair of pinion gears in the differential housing, and is screwed into the differential housing to adjust the meshing state of the side gears and the pinion gear from the outside. Each of the position adjustment members has a head that abuts the side gear at one end, a plurality of recesses on the end surface of the other end for allowing the position adjustment member to rotate from the outside, and a plurality of recesses in the middle thereof. Threaded portions are respectively formed to be screwed onto the differential housing, and ring-shaped fixing members each having a plurality of claws formed on one end surface are attached to both ends of the differential housing, respectively; and a plurality of claws of the fixing member that correspond to the recesses of the respective position adjustment members are respectively engaged with the recesses so as to prevent rotation of the position adjustment member. on the moving device.

[Effect]

The operation of the differential device of the present invention having the above configuration is as follows:
It is as follows.

That is, after the differential gear 2 is assembled, the position adjustment members 24a, 24b are rotated from the outside, and the side gears 8a, 8b are moved relative to the pair of pinion gears 10a, 10b, so that both side gears 8a,
8b and both pinion gears 10a, 10b can be easily adjusted, and thus,
Side gears 8a, 8b and pinion gears 10a, 1
0b can be maintained in a substantially non-existent state.

A plurality of claws 34 of the fixing members 32a, 32b
are the recesses 3 of each position adjustment member 24a, 24b.
Only the claw 34 corresponding to 0 is bent inward,
The recess 30 is engaged with the recess 30 . Therefore, the rotation of the position adjustment members 24a, 24b is reliably prevented by the action of the claws 30.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, a specific example of a differential device constructed according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrating a first embodiment of a differential constructed in accordance with the invention, the differential, designated generally by the number 2, comprises a differential housing 4. . This differential housing 4
is rotatably mounted within an axle housing (not shown) via a bearing 6.

Inside the differential housing 4, a pair of side gears 8a and 8b and a pair of pinion gears 10a and 10b are arranged to face each other. The pinion gears 10a and 10b are each mounted on a pinion shaft 12 whose both ends are fixed to the differential housing 4 so as to be rotatable and mesh with the pair of side gears 8a and 8b.
The side gears 8a, 8b have splines 14a, 14b formed on the inner circumferential surface of the mounting through hole, respectively, and splines corresponding to the splines 14a, 14b are formed on the outer circumferential surface of one end of the axles 16a, 16b, respectively. are formed, and the side gears 8a, 8b and axles 16a, 16b are
Each is spline connected. Axle 16a,
The other end of each of 16b is connected to the differential housing 4.
It extends outward through holes 20 formed at both ends (only one side is shown in FIG. 2), and both left and right drive wheels are fixed to the other end (not shown), respectively. ing.

On the other hand, a ring gear 22 is fixed to the outside of the differential housing 4 with bolts 24. A drive pinion gear (not shown) to which driving force from an internal combustion engine (not shown) is transmitted is meshed with the ring gear 22 .

Therefore, in the differential device 2 described above, the driving force from the internal combustion engine passes through the ring gear 22, the differential housing 4, the pinion gears 10a, 10b, the side gears 8a, 8b, and the axles 16a, 16b to both the left and right drive wheels. (not shown).

The differential housing 4 further includes side gears 8a, 8b and pinion gears 10a, 10b.
A pair of position adjustment members 24a and 24b are respectively attached to adjust the meshing state with each other. The position adjustment members 24a and 24b (in FIG. 2, only the position adjustment member 24b is shown) have substantially the same configuration, and each has a through hole 26 formed in the center thereof, through which the axle axle 16a, 16b passes. There is.
Each of the position adjusting members 24a, 24b is further provided with a head 28 at one end thereof, a pair of recesses 30 at the end surface of the other end, or a threaded portion 31 on the outer peripheral surface of the intermediate portion thereof. As shown in FIG. 1, the above-mentioned position adjustment members 24a and 24b have their heads 28 connected to thrust washers 29a and 24b, respectively.
It is screwed into a threaded portion 33 formed on the inner circumferential surface of each hole 20 of the differential housing 4 so as to face the side gears 8a, 8b via the opening 29b. Note that the thrust washers 29a, 29b may be omitted, and the heads 28 of the position adjustment members 24a, 24b may be brought into direct contact with the end surfaces of the side gears 8a, 8b. After the differential gear 2 has been assembled, the position adjusting members 24a, 24b can be moved by inserting a tool (a special tool for rotating the position adjusting members 24, 24b) from the outside through the hole 20 of the differential gear housing 4. By inserting it into the pair of recesses 30, it can be rotated.

Furthermore, ring-shaped fixing members 32a and 32b for fixing the position adjustment members 24a and 24b are attached to both ends of the differential housing 4, respectively. The fixing members 32a, 32b (only the fixing member 32b is shown in FIG. 2) have substantially the same configuration, and are ring-shaped fixing members 32a, 32b.
A plurality of claws 34 extending outward are formed on one end surface of 2b, and an edge 36 protruding inward on the other end.
is formed. These fixing members 32a, 32b
A portion of the circumferential side surface is cut off, and both side end portions 38a and 38b each protrude inward.

As can be easily understood from FIGS. 1 and 2, the fixing members 32a and 32b described above have their edges 36 inserted into circumferential grooves 40 formed at both ends of the differential housing 4, respectively. and both ends 38a and 38b thereof are respectively inserted into the notches 42 formed in the differential housing 4, so that each of the fixing members 32a and 32b is inserted at both ends of the differential housing 4, respectively. attached to the section.

A plurality of claws 34 of the fixing members 32a, 32b
are the recesses 3 of each position adjustment member 24a, 24b.
Only the pawl 34 corresponding to 0 is bent inward and engaged with this recess 30, as shown in FIG. Therefore, the position adjustment members 24a, 24
The rotation of b is reliably prevented by the action of this pawl 30.

In the differential device 2 as described above, after the differential device 2 is assembled, the position adjustment members 24a and 24b are
is rotated from the outside, and a pair of pinion gears 10
a, 10b, each side gear 8a, 8b
By moving the side gears 8a, 8b and the pinion gears 10a, 10b, it is possible to easily adjust the meshing state between the side gears 8a, 8b and the pinion gears 10a, 10b.
It is possible to maintain substantially no backlash between the pinion gears 10a, 10b and the pinion gears 10a, 10b.

In addition, in the illustrated example, as can be easily understood from FIG. 1, when the differential device 2 is mounted on the axle housing (not shown),
Since a part of the circumferential side surface of each of the fixing members 32a and 32b is covered by the inner circumferential surface of the bearing 6, each of the fixing members 32a and 32b will not come off from the differential gear housing 4, and the position adjustment member will be reliably fixed. 24a, 24b
can be fixed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the differential device of the present invention, the pair of side gears that mesh with the pair of pinion gears are screwed together with the differential housing on the back surfaces of the pair of side gears that mesh with the pair of pinion gears in the differential device housing. A position adjustment member whose meshing state can be adjusted from the outside is provided, and each of the position adjustment members has a head that abuts the side gear at one end, and an end face of the other end that allows the position adjustment member to be rotated from the outside. a plurality of recesses for the recesses, and threaded portions to be screwed onto the differential gear housing are formed in intermediate portions of the recesses, respectively;
A ring-shaped fixing member having a plurality of claws formed on one end surface is attached to each end of the differential housing, and the position of each of the plurality of claws of the fixing member can be adjusted. Since the pawls corresponding to the recesses of the members are respectively engaged with the recesses so as to prevent rotation of the position adjusting member, the backlash adjustment work between the pair of pinion gears and the side gears is performed as follows: This can be done individually from the rear side of each side gear using an external tool, so there is no need to disassemble the differential and replace the thrust washers and spacers in order to readjust the backlash, as is the case in the past. This has the effect of improving the workability for batch adjustment.

Further, a recess for screwing the position adjusting member into the inner surface of the differential housing, that is, for making the differential housing itself serve as a constituent member of the position adjusting member and for rotating the position adjusting member, After the backlash is adjusted, it also serves as the engagement recess for the pawl of the ring-shaped fixing member, so there is an advantage that the number of parts is small and a differential device with a simple structure can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a specific example of a differential device constructed in accordance with the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing one end of the differential device shown in FIG. 1. 2... Differential device, 4... Differential device housing,
8a, 8b...Side gear, 10a, 10b...
Pinion gear, 16a, 16b...axle, 24
a, 24b...Position adjustment member, 31...Threaded part,
32a, 32b...Fixing member, 34...Claw, 36
...edge.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A position adjustment member is provided on the rear surface of the pair of side gears that mesh with the pair of pinion gears in the differential housing, and is screwed into the differential housing to adjust the meshing state of the side gears and the pinion gear from the outside. each of the position adjustment members has a head that abuts the side gear at one end;
A plurality of recesses for externally rotating the position adjustment member are formed on the end surface of the other end, and threaded portions are formed in the intermediate portion thereof to be screwed onto the differential housing. A ring-shaped fixing member having a plurality of claws formed on one end surface is attached to each of the two ends, and each of the plurality of claws of the fixing member corresponds to a recess of the position adjustment member. A differential device characterized in that the claws are engaged with the recesses so as to prevent rotation of the position adjustment member.