摘要 |
A transmission/transaxle assembly (30; 200) for vehicles such as lawn and garden tractors which includes a housing (32; 202) a dual input (46,48; 210,212), a constant mesh planetary gear assembly (44; 223), differential gear means (120; 275), axle means (140,142; 292,294) and output gear means (72; 250) which transfer the planetary gear output to the differential gear and axle means. The assembly reduces the rotational speed of two power inputs to a single, lower speed output and allows clutchless, infinitely variable forward, neutral and reverse output speeds by varying the rotational speed of at least one of the inputs with respect to the other. The assembly is compact and provides efficient lubrication through immersion of portions of the planetary gear assembly which continuously rotate in an oil compartment. The axes of the input shafts (46,48; 210,212) are arranged transverse to the axis of the output axles (140,142; 210,212) such that the assembly will easily accommodate vertical drive shaft engines (10) in tractors or mowers. Output gearing transfers the reduced output of the planetary gear assembly first transverse to and then parallel to the input axes. Various differential gearing may be used while variation of the speed of one of the inputs may be made with a variable pulley assenbly or other variable drive assembly. |