Axle assembly with interaxle differential support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10001201-B2
Application number	US-201615347426-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2016
Priority date	Nov 9, 2016
Publication date	Jun 19, 2018
Grant date	Jun 19, 2018

Abstract

An axle assembly having an interaxle differential unit. The interaxle differential unit may operatively connect an input shaft to a drive pinion and an output shaft. The interaxle differential unit may include a spider that may be rotatable with respect to the output shaft. The spider may be supported by the drive pinion and may be rotatable with respect to the drive pinion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An axle assembly comprising:
an input shaft;
a drive pinion that is spaced apart from the input shaft;
an output shaft that extends through the drive pinion;
an interaxle differential unit that operatively connects the input shaft to the drive pinion and the output shaft, the interaxle differential unit including a first side gear that is fixedly disposed on the drive pinion and a spider that is rotatable with respect to the output shaft and through which the output shaft extends, wherein the spider is supported by the drive pinion and is rotatable with respect to the drive pinion; and
a stabilizer bearing that extends from the drive pinion to the spider and is spaced apart from and does not engage the first side gear, wherein the stabilizer bearing rotatably supports the spider.

2. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the stabilizer bearing is disposed in a case of the interaxle differential unit.

3. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the drive pinion has an inner drive pinion surface that defines a drive pinion passage through which the output shaft extends, wherein the stabilizer bearing inhibits movement of the output shaft toward the inner drive pinion surface.

4. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the stabilizer bearing is a roller bearing assembly.

5. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the stabilizer bearing is a bushing.

6. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the stabilizer bearing is received in the spider.

7. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the drive pinion engages the spider.

8. An axle assembly comprising:
an input shaft that is rotatable about an axis;
a drive pinion that is spaced apart from the input shaft and is rotatable about the axis;
an output shaft that extends through the drive pinion and is rotatable about the axis;
an interaxle differential unit that operatively connects the input shaft to the drive pinion and the output shaft, the interaxle differential unit including a spider that includes:
an annular spider body that is axially positioned between the input shaft and the drive pinion; and
an annular spider flange that extends from the annular spider body away from the input shaft; and

a stabilizer bearing that is received in the annular spider flange and extends from the annular spider flange to the drive pinion, wherein the stabilizer bearing rotatably supports the spider.

9. The axle assembly of claim 8 wherein the output shaft extends through the drive pinion and the spider and does not engage the drive pinion and the spider.

10. The axle assembly of claim 8 wherein the output shaft extends through the annular spider body and the annular spider flange.

11. The axle assembly of claim 8 wherein the annular spider flange extends in an axial direction toward the drive pinion and does not engage the drive pinion.

12. The axle assembly of claim 8 wherein the drive pinion is received in the annular spider flange and is not received in the annular spider body.

13. The axle assembly of claim 12 wherein the annular spider body has an inner spider body surface that faces toward and extends around the axis, the annular spider flange has an inner spider flange surface that faces toward and extends around the axis, and the inner spider flange surface is disposed further from the axis than the inner spider body surface.

14. The axle assembly of claim 13 wherein the stabilizer bearing is disposed further from the axis than the inner spider body surface.

15. The axle assembly of claim 13 wherein the spider includes an outer spider flange surface that is disposed opposite the inner spider flange surface, wherein the outer spider flange surface is disposed in a nonparallel relationship with the inner spider flange surface.

16. The axle assembly of claim 13 wherein the spider further comprises a spider step surface that extends from the inner spider body surface to the inner spider flange surface, and the drive pinion further comprises a drive pinion end surface that is disposed adjacent to the spider step surface.

17. The axle assembly of claim 16 wherein the interaxle differential unit further comprises:
a first side gear that is disposed on the drive pinion;
a second side gear that is disposed on the output shaft; and
a pinion gear that is rotatably disposed on the spider and that meshes with the first side gear and the second side gear;
wherein the stabilizer bearing is axially positioned between the first side gear and the second side gear and does not engage the first side gear and the second side gear.

18. The axle assembly of claim 17 wherein the first side gear extends around at least a portion of the annular spider flange.

19. The axle assembly of claim 17 wherein the drive pinion has a drive pinion spline that is received in and engages the first side gear and a drive pinion outer surface that extends between the drive pinion end surface and the drive pinion spline, wherein the stabilizer bearing is disposed on the drive pinion outer surface.

20. The axle assembly of claim 19 wherein the inner spider flange surface is disposed further from the axis than the drive pinion spline.

Assignees

• Arvinmeritor Technology Llc

Inventors

• Martin Robert J
• Hayes Brian D

Classifications

• F16H2048/085

  characterised by shafts or gear carriers for orbital gears · CPC title

• F16H48/40

  characterised by features of the rotating cases · CPC title

• F16H48/08 Primary

  comprising bevel gears · CPC title

• B60K17/36

  for driving tandem wheels · CPC title

• B60K23/08

  for changing number of driven wheels {, for switching from driving one axle to driving two or more axles (B60K17/3515 takes precedence)} · CPC title