A vehicle transmission includes a transmission shaft, a friction element assembly mounted on the transmission shaft, a piston assembly for actuating the friction element assembly, a snap ring for retaining the friction element assembly and a mounting groove formed in the transmission shaft. The snap ring is installed into the mounting groove by expanding the snap ring and then allowing the snap to contract and enter the mounting groove. The mounting groove is located such that the snap ring could exit the mounting groove upon expansion of the snap ring due to a centrifugal force. Accordingly, various arrangements are provided to prevent the snap ring from leaving the mounting groove after installation.

A disclosed fan drive gear system includes a sun gear rotatable about an axis of rotation, a plurality of intermediate gears rotatable about an intermediate gear rotation axis in meshing engagement with the sun gear and a ring gear circumscribing the intermediate gears. A bearing assembly supports at least one of the plurality of intermediate gears and includes a first beam extending in a first direction and a second beam extending from an end of the first beam in a second direction. The bearing surface supported on the second beam such that first and second beams are configured to maintain the bearing surface substantially parallel to the intermediate gear rotation axis during operation.

An assembly for acoustically influencing toothed wheels, including at least one first toothed wheel having teeth and one second toothed wheel having teeth, wherein the teeth have flanks, wherein at least one flank of a tooth of the first toothed wheel can be engaged with a flank of a tooth of the second toothed wheel, wherein at least one flank of a tooth of the first toothed wheel forms a contact zone or, in the ideal case, a contact line with an engaging flank of a tooth of a second toothed wheel, wherein the contact zone or the contact line is formed at an angle α.sub.Aq, in particular between 5° and 85° or between 95° and 175°, in relation to an axis of an undulation, a microangle distribution, and/or a microangle periodicity of the engaging flank of the tooth of the second toothed wheel.

Tools, systems, and methods for use in conjunction with maintenance, assembly, rebuilding, or other procedures which involve displacing components of an assembly are disclosed. These tools, systems, and methods may be used in conjunction with a crane or other lifting device and may be configured to assemble, disassemble, or otherwise maintain components of an uptower gearbox.

A system and method for modifying a transmission in a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle to couple the transmission to an off-axis electric motor. The transmission includes a motor-driven gear that replaces or modifies an engine-driven reverse gear. The motor-driven gear is hard-splined to an output shaft of the transmission. An electric motor is coupled to the output shaft of the transmission via the motor-driven gear. The electric motor may thus be oriented along an axis that differs from the axis of the transmission's output shaft.

A coupler assembly is provided for coupling components in a power transmission system, such as a rack and pinion drive system. The coupler assembly includes a floating mount and a pair of clamp members movable between an unfastened configuration in which the floating mount is adjustably supported between the clamp members and a fastened configuration in which the floating mount is fixedly secured between the clamp members. At least a pitch and a yaw of the floating mount are adjustable when the clamp members are in the unfastened configuration. Methods and systems which relate to or include the aforementioned coupler assembly are also provided.

A variable speed transmission having a plurality of tilting balls and opposing input and output discs is illustrated and described that provides an infinite number of speed combinations over its transmission ratio range. The use of a planetary gear set allows minimum speeds to be in reverse and the unique geometry of the transmission allows all of the power paths to be coaxial, thereby reducing overall size and complexity of the transmission in comparison to transmissions achieving similar transmission ratio ranges.

Provided are variations of a motor and planetary gear assembly comprising a motor, as well as a method for producing such motor and planetary gear assemblies.

A disclosed fan drive gear system includes a sun gear rotatable about an axis of rotation, a plurality of intermediate gears rotatable about an intermediate gear rotation axis in meshing engagement with the sun gear and a ring gear circumscribing the intermediate gears. A bearing assembly supports at least one of the plurality of intermediate gears and includes a first beam extending in a first direction and a second beam extending from an end of the first beam in a second direction. The bearing surface supported on the second beam such that first and second beams are configured to maintain the bearing surface substantially parallel to the intermediate gear rotation axis during operation.

A compact planetary differential gear set includes first (130A) and second (130B) sun gears, a first set (200A) and a second set (200B) of planet gears (220), and a carrier (160) with a ring gear (190). Enmeshing gear pairs (210) are formed from one planet gear from each set. The first and second planet gear sets enmesh the first and second sun gears, respectively. The ring gear does not extend into an annular region containing the planet gears thereby allowing four or more gear pairs to compactly fit into the annular region. The carrier is a weldment and substantially encloses the sun gears and the planet gears permanently. The differential requires no fasteners or post-weld machining and may have a higher capacity, lower cost, smaller size, lower part number count, and/or lower amounts of material compared with conventional differentials. The differential is suited for motor vehicle applications.