JPS6344091B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] This invention provides a four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a transverse engine;
In particular, the present invention relates to a four-wheel drive vehicle having a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism and a high/low speed switching device.

In general, in order to increase the value of four-wheel drive vehicles, in addition to the front and rear differential gear mechanism (center differential) that absorbs the difference in rotation between the front and rear wheels when turning, and the gears of the normal transmission, It is desirable to have a high/low speed switching device that can change the speed between high and low speeds.

However, two-wheel drive vehicles equipped with normal transverse engines do not have the above-mentioned front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism or high-low speed switching device, as disclosed in JP-A-55-11948 and JP-A-55-17727. Therefore, when applying a transaxle that integrates the transmission and final reduction gear of a two-wheel drive vehicle to a four-wheel drive vehicle, it is not possible to install a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism or a high-low speed switching device. , or require significant modification for installation.

Therefore, in the case of conventional four-wheel drive vehicles, when using the transaxle of a two-wheel drive vehicle, the base value for use must be reduced without installing a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism or a high-low speed switching device. Otherwise, the front and rear differential gear mechanism required major transaxle modifications and design changes in order to install the high-low speed switching device, leading to an increase in costs.

This invention was made by focusing on such conventional problems, and it is necessary to install a differential gear mechanism in the transaxle case of a two-wheel drive vehicle, that is, in the casing that rotates integrally with the final reduction gear. A high/low speed switching gear mechanism is incorporated, and in an additional housing attached to the transaxle case, a high/low speed switching device, a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism, and a differential gear mechanism for the front or rear wheels, and a differential gear mechanism for the front or rear wheels are incorporated. In order to transmit the driving force to the differential gear mechanism, by providing a direction conversion gear set that converts the rotational direction of the driving force at right angles, the transaxle of a two-wheel drive vehicle can be changed to a front and rear differential gear mechanism and high/low speed with a slight change. It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems by making it applicable to a transaxle of a four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a switching device.

The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a skeleton diagram showing the power train of a four-wheel drive vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a sectional view showing the main parts of this embodiment, with the same reference numerals assigned to corresponding parts in FIG. 1.

First, the configuration will be explained. Reference numeral 1 designates a so-called horizontal engine in which a crankshaft 1a serving as an output shaft extends in the lateral direction of the vehicle at the front of the vehicle.
2 is a manual transaxle. The manual transaxle 2 has a clutch 4 in a transaxle case 3, a transmission 5 arranged in series with the engine 1, and a final reduction gear 6. The transmission 5 includes an input shaft 5a that is serially connected to the crankshaft 1a of the engine 1 via a clutch 4 and arranged in the lateral direction of the vehicle body, and an output shaft 5b that is also arranged in the lateral direction of the vehicle body. However, between the input shaft 5a and the output shaft 5b, there is a transmission gear set as a transmission mechanism, that is, a first speed gear set 50a,
2nd speed gear set 50b, 3rd speed gear set 50c,
A fourth speed gear set 50d and a reverse gear set 50e are interposed. A drive gear 7 is provided at one end of the output shaft 5b.
is provided, and a final reduction gear 6 is meshed with this drive gear 7. The final reduction gear 6 is
It is rotatably supported within the transaxle case 3 with an axis extending in the lateral direction of the vehicle body serving as the rotation axis;
It is arranged coaxially with the front axle 29. Reference numeral 9 denotes a casing, to which the final reduction gear 6 is attached, rotatably supported by the transaxle case 3, and rotates integrally with the final reduction gear 6. A planetary gear set as a high/low speed switching gear mechanism 10 is incorporated into the casing 9. That is, the high/low speed switching gear mechanism 10
has a ring gear 11 provided inside the casing 9, a plurality of planetary gears 12 that mesh with the ring gear 11, and a sun gear 13 that meshes with the planetary gear 12. 1 is attached to a hollow shaft 15. Sun gear 13 is the first
It is connected to a second hollow shaft 18 into which the hollow shaft 15 is inserted. 3a is a portion of the transaxle case 3 on the transmission 5 side, and 3b is a portion of the transaxle case 3 on the clutch 4 side, and both are connected near the plane containing the final reduction gear 6. An additional housing 19 is attached to a portion 3b of the transaxle case 3 on the clutch 4 side, and accommodates first and second hollow shafts 15 and 18 protruding from the transaxle case 3. A high/low speed switching device 20 for operating the high/low speed switching gear mechanism 10 is provided within the additional housing 19 . The high/low speed switching device 20 includes a second hollow shaft 1
8, a clutch tooth 22 fixed to the additional housing 19, and a clutch tooth 23 attached to the first hollow shaft 15. A first gear 70 and a spline are also provided on the first hollow shaft 15, and a coupling sleeve 72 of a lock-up mechanism 71 is slidably provided on the spline. The front wheel differential gear mechanism 16 is
It has a differential case 17 rotatably supported by an additional housing 19, and within the differential case 17 is a pair of pinion gears rotatably supported on an axis 24 orthogonal to an axis extending in the lateral direction of the vehicle body. 25, 26 and a pair of side gears 27 meshing with these pinion gears 25, 26,
A differential gear set consisting of 28 is housed. Left and right front axles 29 and 30 extending in the lateral direction of the vehicle body are connected to the side gears 27 and 28, respectively.
Front axles 29 and 30 each have constant velocity joint 3
1, 32, drive axles 33, 34, and constant velocity joints 35, 36, the wheels are connected to left and right front wheels 37, 38. The differential case 17 has a coupling sleeve 72 of the lock-up mechanism 71.
A clutch tooth 73 and a fourth gear 39 are attached which can be connected to the clutch tooth 73 and the fourth gear 39. Reference numeral 40 denotes an intermediate shaft, which is arranged in the lateral direction of the vehicle body and rotatably supported by the additional housing 19. A first gear 70 is disposed on the intermediate shaft 40.
A second gear 41 that meshes with the intermediate shaft 40 is rotatably provided, and a first bevel gear 42 that is a first direction conversion gear is provided to rotate integrally with the intermediate shaft 40 . 74 is a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism provided in the additional housing 19, and the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 74 is connected to the second gear 41 and has a third hollow shaft 75 rotatably supported on the intermediate shaft 40. , shafts 76, 77 connected orthogonally to the third hollow shaft 75 and rotatably connected to the intermediate shaft 40;
A pair of pinion gears 7 rotatably supported by
8, 79, a pair of side gears 80 meshing with the pinion gears 78, 79 and rotatably supported on the third hollow shaft 75 and the intermediate shaft 40, respectively;
81. The side gear 80 on the left side in the figure is the third
It has a gear 82, and this third gear 82 meshes with the fourth tooth 39 of the differential case 17.
Clutch teeth 45 of a two-wheel/four-wheel drive switching device 43 are provided on the left side gear 81 in the figure.
The two-wheel/four-wheel drive switching device 43 also includes the intermediate shaft 4
It has a coupling sleeve 44 which is slidable on splines provided at 0 and can mesh with clutch teeth 45. A second bevel gear 46 is a second direction conversion gear, and is provided on a shaft 47 that meshes with the first bevel gear 42 and extends in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. A shaft 47 extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body is connected to a rear wheel final reduction gear 52 via a universal joint 48, a propeller shaft 49, and a universal joint 51. The final reduction gear 52 for rear wheels has a differential gear mechanism 53 inside, and constant velocity joints 54, 55,
Left and right rear axles 56, 57, constant velocity joint 58,
It is connected to left and right rear wheels 60, 61 via 59.

Next, the action will be explained.

The driving force output from the engine 1 is inputted to the input shaft 5a of the transmission 5 via the clutch 4, is shifted by the transmission gear side, is outputted from the output shaft 5b, and is then passed through the drive gear 7 to the final reduction gear 6. drive the rotation. The rotation of the final reduction gear 6 is transmitted to the casing 9 and then to the ring gear 11. If the high/low speed switching device 20 is now switched to the low speed stage, the coupling sleeve 2
1 meshes with clutch teeth 22 on the additional housing 19 side to fix the sun gear 13. Therefore, the rotation of the ring gear 11 is transmitted to the carrier 14 which is reduced in speed, and is transmitted to the first gear 70 via the first hollow shaft 15. The rotation transmitted to the first gear 70 is transmitted to the shafts 76 and 77 of the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 74 via the second gear 41 and the third hollow shaft 75. Now, when the lockup mechanism 71 is released, the coupling sleeve 72 is in the illustrated position where it is disengaged from the clutch teeth 73, and the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 74 transfers the driving force to the pinion gears 78, 79.
It is distributed to two side gears 80, 81 via. The rotation of the side gear 80 is transmitted to the differential case 17 of the front wheel differential gear mechanism 16 via the third gear 82 and the fourth gear 39. The rotation of the differential case 17 is controlled by the pinion gear 2.
5, 26, and a differential gear mechanism of side gears 27, 28, it is divided into left and right front axles 29, 30, front axles 29, 30, constant velocity joints 31, 32, drive axles 33, 34, and constant velocity joint 35. , 36 to drive front wheels 37, 38. On the other hand, if the two-wheel/four-wheel drive switching device 43 is currently switched to four-wheel drive, the rotation of the side gear 81 is transmitted to the intermediate shaft 40 because the coupling sleeve 44 is connected to the clutch wheel 45. . The rotation of the intermediate shaft 40 is caused by the first bevel gear 42 and the second bevel gear 46.
The rotational direction is converted to a right angle by the meshing with the rotation direction, and the rotation direction is transmitted to a shaft 47 extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. The rotation transmitted to the shaft 47 is transmitted through the universal joint 48,
The signal is transmitted to the rear wheel final reducer 52 via the propeller shaft 49 and the universal joint 51.
The final reduction gear for the rear wheels 52 converts the rotational direction to the right angle again, and the speed is reduced to the same reduction ratio as the front wheels.The differential gear mechanism 53 for the rear wheels divides the rotation direction into two parts, and the rear wheels are divided into two parts by the rear wheel differential gear mechanism 53, constant velocity joints 54 and 55, and the rear axle. 56, 57, and drive rear wheels 60, 61 via constant velocity joints 58, 59. As a result, four-wheel drive is achieved in which both the front wheels 37, 38 and the rear wheels 60, 61 are driven at the low gear.

Next, the high/low speed switching device 20 is switched to the high speed stage, and the coupling sleeve 21 is moved to the first hollow shaft 15.
When the clutch teeth 23 of the sun gear 13 are engaged with each other, the sun gear 13
is connected to the carrier 14, and the ring gear 11, planetary gear 12, and sun gear 13 rotate once, and the rotation of the final reduction gear 6 is directly transmitted to the first gear 70 without being decelerated by the high-low speed switching gear mechanism 10, Front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 7 via gear 41
4 can be conveyed. Therefore, as described above, the front wheels 37, 38 and the rear wheels 60, 61 are both driven in the high speed gear, resulting in four-wheel drive.

In any of the above cases, the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 74 is configured to operate the front and rear wheels 37, 38 and 6, which occurs when turning or when the front and rear wheels have different tire diameters.
It absorbs the difference in rotational speed between 0 and 61, allowing constant four-wheel drive driving regardless of whether the vehicle is driving on level or rough terrain.

Next, when the coupling sleeve 72 of the lock-up mechanism 71 is engaged with the clutch teeth 73 of the differential case 17, the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism 74 is connected to its shafts 76, 77, pinion gears 78, 7.
9. The side gears 80, 81 are in a locked-up state, rotating integrally, and the front and rear wheels 37, 38, 60, 6
A driving force equal to 1 is transmitted to prevent the wheels from spinning.

Next, with the coupling sleeve 72 of the lockup mechanism 71 engaged with the clutch teeth 73,
If the coupling sleeve 44 of the two-wheel/four-wheel drive switching device 43 is separated from the clutch teeth 45 of the side gear 81, the driving force of the engine 1 is not transmitted to the intermediate shaft 40, but the driving force is transmitted to the rear wheels 60, 61. It will no longer be done. On the other hand, driving force is directly transmitted from the first hollow shaft 15 to the differential case 17 of the differential gear mechanism 16 for the front wheels. Therefore, it becomes a two-wheel drive in which only the front wheels 37 and 38 are driven.

In addition, in the above-mentioned implementation series, a front engine type four-wheel drive vehicle with an engine mounted at the front of the vehicle body was explained, but this invention is applicable to a rear engine type four-wheel drive vehicle with an engine mounted at the rear of the vehicle body, and a rear engine type four-wheel drive vehicle with an engine mounted at the rear of the vehicle body. Of course, it can also be applied to small-type four-wheel drive vehicles. In addition, in the above embodiment, the transmission was explained as a manual transmission, but it is an automatic transmission.
Needless to say, it can be applied to transmission.

Furthermore, in the high/low speed switching gear mechanism 10 of the above-described embodiment, the ring gear 11 side of the planetary gear set was used as the input, and the carrier 14 side was used as the output, but instead of this, the sun gear 13 side was used as the input, and the carrier side was used as the output. The output ring gear may be configured to be fixed or connectable to other gears, or may be configured in other combinations.

As explained above, according to the four-wheel drive vehicle of the present invention, the high and low speed Incorporated with the switching gear mechanism, and in an additional housing mounted on the transaxle case, there is a high/low speed switching device, a front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism, a differential gear mechanism for the front or rear wheels, and a differential for the remaining rear or front wheels. The structure includes a direction conversion gear set that converts the rotational direction of the driving force to a right angle for transmitting the driving force to the gear mechanism. For this reason, by using the transaxle of a transverse engine type two-wheel drive vehicle as a base, and without making any major modifications to the interior of the transaxle, it is possible to create front and rear differentials by simply changing the final reduction gear and adding an additional housing. It can be changed to a four-wheel drive transaxle equipped with a gear mechanism and high/low speed switching device. Therefore, according to the present invention, a transaxle of a two-wheel drive vehicle and a transaxle equipped with a front-rear wheel differential gear mechanism and a high-low speed switching device of a four-wheel drive vehicle can be easily used together with only slight changes. This has the effect of reducing the cost of four-wheel drive vehicles. Furthermore, by removing the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism, it can be easily applied to a transaxle of a four-wheel drive vehicle that is equipped with only a high-low speed switching device.

In addition, since the high-low speed switching gear mechanism is incorporated in the part where the differential gear mechanism is incorporated in the transaxle case of a two-wheel drive vehicle, that is, in the casing that rotates integrally with the final reduction gear, it is an element for four-wheel drive. The additional housing in which the power unit is built can be made smaller, and the entire power unit can be made smaller.

Moreover, at this time, the high-low speed switching operation device of the high-low speed switching gear mechanism and the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism are
Since the operating device for the transmission gear set for switching the four wheels is provided in the additional housing, both operating devices can be housed in the same housing 1, which also has the advantage of simplifying its structure.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, each of the above features provides the following features:
Each gear mechanism inside the transaxle housing,
Since the front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism, each gear mechanism, and the operating device inside the additional housing can be assembled and manufactured independently for each unit, assembly is easy, and both units can be assembled in the final assembly process. Since they only need to be combined, manufacturing costs can be significantly reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the power train of a four-wheel drive vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing essential parts of the four-wheel drive vehicle according to this embodiment. 1...Engine, 1a...Crankshaft, 2...
Manual trunk axle, 3... Transaxle case, 4... Clutch, 5... Transmission, 6... Final reduction gear, 7... Drive gear, 9... Casing, 10... High/low speed switching gear mechanism, 16... Front wheel differential gear mechanism, 17... Differential case, 19... Additional housing, 20... High/low speed switching device, 29, 30... Front axle, 37, 38... Front wheel, 39... ...Fourth gear, 40... Intermediate shaft, 41... Second gear, 42...
...First bevel gear (first direction conversion gear), 43...Two-wheel/four-wheel drive switching device, 46...Second bevel gear (second direction conversion gear), 47...A shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, 49 ...Propeller shaft, 52...Rear wheel side final reduction gear, 56,57...Rear axle, 60,6
1... Rear wheel, 70... First gear, 71... Lockup mechanism, 74... Front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism, 8
2...Third gear.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An engine arranged so that the crankshaft extends in the lateral direction of the vehicle body, a transmission equipped with a transmission mechanism arranged in series with the engine inside the transaxle case, and one of the front wheels or the rear wheels inside the transaxle case. A final reduction gear arranged coaxially with the axle and rotationally driven by the output shaft of the transmission, a high-low speed switching gear mechanism provided inside the casing that rotates integrally with the final reduction gear within the transaxle case, and a transaxle. a high/low speed switching device provided in an additional housing connected to the axle case to operate the high/low speed switching gear mechanism; and a differential for front or rear wheels disposed coaxially with the one axle within the additional housing. a gear mechanism, an intermediate shaft arranged to extend in the lateral direction of the vehicle body within an additional housing, and a drive force transmitted from the high/low speed switching gear mechanism provided on the intermediate shaft to the differential gear mechanism and the intermediate shaft. A front and rear wheel differential gear mechanism that distributes and transmits power to the shaft, a first direction conversion gear provided on the intermediate shaft, and a first direction conversion gear provided on a shaft extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle mesh with each other to generate driving force. A four-wheel drive vehicle, comprising: a second direction conversion gear that converts the direction of rotation of the four-wheel drive vehicle to a right angle and transmits the rotation direction to the other differential gear mechanism side of the front wheels or the rear wheels.