Multi-mode drive system for transaxle applications

Abstract

A vehicle drive system capable of selectively providing all-wheel drive and single-driven-axle modes includes a front drive unit having a planetary gearset with a grounded ring gear and a sun gear driven by the transaxle's drive spool via an input shaft, and a differential selectively coupled by a dog clutch to one of the sun gear or the planetary carrier, or neither of them, to thereby selectively provide both an available low range and a front axle disconnect. The front drive unit further defines a power take-off unit with a clutch selectively coupling the input shaft to a propshaft. The rear drive unit includes a planetary gearset with a grounded ring gear, a sun gear driven by the propshaft, and a differential selectively coupled by a dog clutch to one of the sun gear or the planetary carrier, or neither of them, to thereby likewise selectively provide both an available low range and a rear axle disconnect.

Claims

1. An all-wheel drive system for a vehicle comprising: a front drive unit including: a front housing, a front input shaft, a front planetary gearset having a front ring gear grounded to the front housing, a front sun gear permanently coupled for rotation with the front input shaft, and a set of front planet gears supported by a front planetary carrier, a front differential, and a front clutch configured to selectively couple the front differential for rotation with one of the front sun gear and the front planetary carrier; a rear drive unit including: a rear housing, a rear input shaft, a rear planetary gearset having a rear ring gear grounded to the rear housing, a rear sun gear permanently coupled for rotation with the rear input shaft, and a set of rear planet gears supported by a rear planetary carrier, a rear differential, and a rear clutch configured to selectively couple the rear differential for rotation with one of the rear sun gear and the rear planetary carrier independently of the front clutch coupling the front differential for rotation with one of the front sun gear and the front planetary carrier; and a propshaft coupled to the front drive unit via a power take-off unit and to the rear drive unit; wherein a two-position clutch of the power take-off unit is configured to selectively couple the rear input shaft to the front input shaft such that the all-wheel drive system is configured to provide a front wheel drive only mode, a rear wheel drive only mode and an all-wheel drive mode, and wherein in the front wheel drive only mode, the two-position clutch decouples the power-take-off unit from the front input shaft such that power is disconnected from the power take-off unit, propshaft and rear drive unit.

2. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the propshaft comprises an electronically controlled clutch.

3. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the power-take-off unit comprises: a first gear; a second gear mating with the first gear; a jack shaft configured to be driven by the second gear; a first hypoid gear associated with the jack shaft; and a second hypoid gear configured to be driven by the first hypoid gear.

4. The all-wheel drive system of claim 3, wherein the two-position clutch is configured to selectively couple the rear input shaft of the rear drive unit to the front input shaft unit by selectively coupling the first gear for rotation with the front input shaft; and wherein driving the second hypoid gear drives the propshaft.

5. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the two-position clutch of the power take-off unit comprises a synchronizer friction cone, and wherein the rear clutch is engaged after the two-position clutch to thereby bring the rear input shaft up to speed prior to engagement of the rear clutch.

6. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the front input shaft is driven by a final spool drive of a transaxle rotatable about a first axis, and wherein the jack shaft of the power take-off unit is rotatable about a second axis, the second axis being disposed at a nominal height in the vehicle lower than that of the first axis thereby providing a compact power take-off unit.

7. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the front clutch is further configured to selectively decouple the front differential from both the front sun gear and the front planetary carrier independent of the rear differential.

8. The all-wheel drive system of claim 7, wherein the front clutch comprises a front three-position clutch.

9. The all-wheel drive system of claim 8, wherein the three-position clutch comprises: a first position coupling a nested output shaft to the front planetary carrier to provide a predetermined torque multiplication, wherein the output shaft is coupled to the front differential; a second position decoupling the front input shaft from the output shaft thereby providing a neutral condition; and a third position rotationally coupling the front input shaft directly to the output shaft.

10. The all-wheel drive system of claim 7, wherein the front clutch comprises a front three-position dog clutch.

11. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the front planetary gearset achieves a reduction ratio of between about 2.5:1 to about 4.5:1 when the front differential is coupled by the front clutch to the front planetary carrier.

12. The all-wheel drive system of claim 11, wherein the rear planetary gearset substantially achieves the reduction ratio when the rear differential is coupled by the rear clutch to the rear planetary carrier.

13. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the front planetary gearset achieves a reduction ratio of between about 1.25:1 to about 1.5:1 when the front differential is coupled by the front crutch to the front planetary carrier.

14. The all-wheel drive system of claim 1, wherein the rear clutch is further configured to selectively decouple the rear differential from both the rear sun gear and the rear planetary carrier independent of the front differential.

15. The all-wheel drive system of claim 14, wherein the rear clutch comprises a rear three-position dog clutch.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an exemplary multi-mode drive system for a vehicle equipped with a transaxle;

(2) FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view of the transaxle of FIG. 1 showing a first reduction gear set located in the torque flowpath downstream of the hypoid gearset forming the transaxle's PTU and upstream of the front axle assembly's floating front differential; and

(3) FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of the rear axle of FIG. 1, downstream of the propshaft and clutch, showing the rear differential as selectively driven by a second reduction gearset located in the rear axle assembly.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

(4) Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary multi-mode drive system 10 for a vehicle equipped with a transversely-mounted engine 12 includes a transaxle 14 having a power transfer unit or power take-off unit (PTU 16) through which power is fed to a front axle assembly or front drive unit (FDU 18) to drive the vehicle's front wheels 20. The PTU 16 also selectively feeds power through to a rear drive unit (RDU 22) through an electrically-controlled clutch 24 via a generally-longitudinally-extending propshaft 26 to thereby drive the vehicle's rear wheels 28.

(5) More specifically, and referring to FIG. 2, the transaxle 14 includes an intermediate shaft 30 that receives power from the transaxle's final drive spool 32. The intermediate shaft 30 is coupled for rotation with the sun gear 34 of a first planetary gearset 36 forming the FDU's reduction gear set. A first, three-position dog clutch 38, operated by a first linear actuator shown diagrammatically at 40, is movable between a first position (toward the left in FIG. 2) in which the first clutch 38 couples a nested output shaft 42 to the planetary carrier to thereby achieve a predetermined speed reduction/torque multiplication. The first clutch 38 is also movable to a second, intermediate position (as illustrated in FIG. 2) in which the first clutch 38 does not couple the intermediate shaft 30 to the output shaft 42 to thereby achieve a neutral condition or disconnected front axle. The first clutch 38 is also movable to a third position (toward the right in FIG. 2) in which the first clutch 38 rotationally couples the output shaft 42 directly to the intermediate shaft 30. The output shaft 42 is, in turn, rotationally coupled to the outer case of the FDU's floating front differential 44 which is supported within the transaxle's final drive spool 32.

(6) The availability of these three front axle operating modes allows the vehicle to retain its nominal transmission ratios, for example, for normal vehicle operation on paved roads, thus increasing fuel economy, while also providing the ability to select low-range gearing for off-road driving applications (for example, when the first planetary gearset 36 achieves a reduction ratio of between about 2.5:1 to about 4.5:1) or alternatively to improve trailer-towing capacity (for example, when the first planetary gearset 36 achieves a reduction ratio of perhaps about 1.25:1 to about 1.5:1).

(7) Referring again to FIG. 2, the FDU's intermediate shaft 30 is also selectively coupled to a first gear 46 forming part of the exemplary drive system's PTU 16 by a second, two-position clutch 48 operated by a suitable second linear actuator indicated schematically at 50. When coupled for rotation with the intermediate shaft 30 by operation of the second clutch 48, the first gear 46 mates with a second gear 52 to drive a jack shaft 54 whose rotational axis 56 is slightly lower than the rotational axis 58 of the intermediate shaft 30, to improve the compactness of the resulting PTU 16. A first hypoid gear 60 on the jack shaft 54 drives a second hypoid gear 62 which, in turn, drives the vehicle's propshaft (shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1).

(8) Referring to FIG. 3, the exemplary system's RDU 22 includes a second hypoid gearset 64 whose gears are preferably similar to, but nonetheless intentionally slightly mismatched from, the PTU's hypoid gears 60, 62. The second hypoid gearset 64 drives an outer shaft 66 that is itself coupled for rotation with the sun gear 68 of a second planetary gearset 70 forming the RDU's reduction gear set. A third, three-position dog clutch 72, similar in construction to the transaxle's first clutch 38 and operated by a third linear actuator shown diagrammatically at 74, is similarly movable to a first position (toward the left in FIG. 3) in which the third clutch 72 rotationally couples the outer shaft 66 directly to a nested inner shaft 76. The third clutch 72 is also movable to a second, intermediate position (as illustrated in FIG. 3) in which the third clutch 72 does not couple the outer shaft 66 to the inner shaft 76 to thereby achieve a neutral condition or disconnected rear axle. The third clutch 72 is also movable to a third position (toward the right in FIG. 3) in which the third clutch 72 couples the inner shaft 76 to the carrier of the second planetary gear set 70, to thereby achieve a predetermined speed reduction/torque multiplication. The inner shaft 76 is, in turn, rotationally coupled to the outer case of the RDU's floating differential 78. It will be appreciated that the invention contemplates use of a limited-slip differential in place of the open differential 78 illustrated in FIG. 3.

(9) Referring again to FIG. 2, while the invention contemplates use of any suitable two-position clutch 48 for selectively driving the first gear 46 under the control of the second actuator 50, in the exemplary drive system 10, the two-position clutch 48 incorporates a synchronizer friction cone by which to bring the downstream driveline up to speed to allow engagement of the RDU's dog clutch 72.

(10) It will be noted that, in the exemplary drive system 10, the FDU's reduction gearing 36 is advantageously disposed within the same housing 80 as the PTU's jack shaft 54 and hypoid gearset 60, 62; thus, the invention contemplates the characterization that the PTU 16 itself includes reduction gearing, provided that the reduction gearing is downstream of the hypoid gearset 60, 62, and upstream of the front axle's differential 44.

(11) From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the use of reduction gearing in both the front and rear axles in accordance with the invention advantageously provides a lower driveline loading, with the PTU gearing, propshaft, electric-controlled clutch, and the RDU gears all subjected to significantly lower torque than when fed torque directly from a planetary reduction gear set disposed upstream of the PTU.

(12) In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the transaxle 14 and RDU 22 are preferably designed for easy manufacture, with myriad components such as the respective reduction gearsets and dog clutch actuators preferably being common to both units. Thus, in the exemplary drive system 10, both the PTU 16 and the RDU 22 utilize a common right-angle hypoid gear design, while the transaxle 14 and the RDU 22 advantageously utilize the same planetary gearset and dog clutch design. In this manner, it will be appreciated that the shift actuation for the reduction gearsets of the exemplary drive system's transaxle 14 and RDU 22 are likewise preferably identical, as is the disconnect actuation for the PTU's hypoid gear set 60, 62.

(13) While the above description constitutes the preferred embodiment, it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible to modification, variation and change without departing from the proper scope and fair meaning of the subjoined claims.