Lubrication system for tandem axle assembly

Abstract: A system is provided for conveying fluid lubricant forwardly to lubricate a forward bearing support member (26) of a vehicular tandem axle assembly (100). The system includes a first open-sided trough (38) in to which the fluid lubricant is deposited by a differential gear assembly (14). Trough (38) is in fluid communication with a second open-sided trough (40) that slopes forwardly and downwardly to the center line of bearing member (26) and is effective to enable the fluid lubricant to flow towards and lubricate bearing member (26) while the vehicle is ascending an incline.

Description: INTRODUCTION This invention relates generally to a system for lubricating a forward bearing support member of an input shaft of a vehicular tandem axle assembly and more particularly to a system that can effectively convey fluid lubricant to the forward bearing support member of a vehicular tandem axle assembly while the vehicle is ascending an incline. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Tandem axles have been employed on larger trucks for many years as a means of transferring torque from the engine drive shaft to successive or tandem axles on the truck. Examples of such tandem axles can be found in United States patents 3,771,622; 4,754,847 and 4,050,534, the latter of which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. A special lubrication system for internal combustion engines can be found in FA-A-386 444 which discloses an engine crank case of an internal combustion engine having four cylinders. The engine crank case is devided by three walls into four compartments. Five bearings are provided in the walls of the engine crank case for the crank shaft. The crank shaft comprises crank webs that plunge into and run through oil contained in the casing thereby splashing oil against the wall of the crank case. Channels for catching the splashed oil are formed at the inner wall of the casing. The cannel extends along the wall of the casing with an inclination of about 15 degrees and ending at the location of one of the bearings. As might be expected, such tandem axles are complicated mechanisms involving numerous rotating components that require lubrication to lessen friction and wear between engaging components such as gears as well as supporting bearing members. Heretofor, the source of fluid lubricant has been from a reservoir of the fluid contained in the chamber in which the ring gear is located that transforms torque to the axle. It has been the practice in the past to either incorporate specialized pumping gears or to utilize the axle assembly gears such as the ring gear itself to perform the additional task of pumping fluid lubricant under pressure to lubricate forward components such as the differential gear assembly or power divider of the axle assembly hereinafter described or to deposit the lubricant such as by splashing into an open-ended trough in the axle assembly housing wall that is operative to convey the lubricant forwardly to lubricate the forward components of the tandem axle assembly. Examples of such troughs are disclosed in United States Patent 3,371,622 previously referred to and in United States patent 4,612,818. Although, in at least one instance, it has been known to convey fluid lubricant from the differential gear assembly to the forward bearing member rotationally supporting the input shaft in certain tandem axle assemblies manufactured by Rockwell International Corporation, such troughs have been positioned in a substantially horizontal orientation and also have not been disposed at a vertical location enabling delivery of the fluid lubricant directly to the center line of the forward bearing support member. The present invention overcomes such short commings by providing an open-sided trough in the tandem axle housing wall that slopes downwardly from the differential gear assembly to the center line of the forward bearing support member as is thus able to deliver fluid lubricant to the forward bearing member when the vehicle is ascending an incline rather than flowing backwardly under gravity therefrom which is of particular importance when the vehicle is under heavy load. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is defined in claim 1, whereby the preamble of that claim is based on US-A- 4754847. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a system for conveying fluid lubricant to the input shaft forward bearing support member of a vehicular tandem axle assembly. It is another object of this invention to provide a system for conveying fluid lubricant to the center line of the input shaft forward bearing support member of a vehicular tandem axle assembly. It is still another object of this invention to provide a system that is effective to convey fluid lubricant to the input shaft forward bearing support member of a tandem axle assembly while the vehicle is ascending an incline. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a central cross-sectional view of a vehicular tandem axle assembly 100 having the fluid lubrication conveyance system of the invention; FIGURE 2 is a central cross-sectional view of the housing of the tandem axle assembly of FIGURE 1 with most of the internal components of the assembly removed; and FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view of a trough 40 in the housing wall of FIGURE 2 taken along view line 3-3. DESCRIPTION OF SOME PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Tandem axle assembly 100 of FIGURE 1 includes an input shaft 6 that is rotationally supported by forward support bearing member 26. Input shaft 6 has a universal joint connection 10 at its end that is used to secure input shaft 6 to the drive shaft (not shown) that is rotationally driven by the vehicle's engine. An output shaft 8 is secured in substantial axial alignment to the opposite end of input shaft 6 and is journaled for simultaneous rotation therewith when input shaft 6 is rotated by the engine's drive shaft. Output shaft 8 has a universal connection 12 at its opposite end for connecting to an input shaft driving a subsequent or tandem axle of the vehicle. A differential gear assembly or power divider generally referenced by numeral 14 is rotated by input shaft 6 and acts through differential gear 5 to drive transfer gear 16 which is secured to rotary pinion shaft 18. A pinion gear 20 is secured to an opposite end of pinion shaft 18 and has teeth that are meshingly engaged with the teeth of a rotary ring gear 22 that is operative to transfer torque to the vehicle's axle referenced by numeral 24. The operation of a tandem axle assembly such as referenced by numeral 100 is well known in the art and is thus not described here in greater detail. Although a singular reference number 15 is used in the FIGURES to represent the housing wall that encloses the various components of tandem axle assembly 100, such wall includes the various sections and cover plates that are collectively secured together to create the entire housing which is shown in cross-section in FIGURE 2 and generally referenced by numeral 15. Housing wall 15 encloses a first chamber referenced by numeral 1 that contains ring gear 22 and a first reservoir 28 of fluid lubricant at its bottom that is used in lubricating assembly 100 and in which a lower portion of previously described ring gear 22 is emerged. A second chamber 2 that contains all except at least a portion of differential gear 5 of differential gear assembly 14 is located within housing wall 15 forward of the center of chamber 1 and is separated therefrom by first portion wall 30. Chamber 2 has a second reservoir 32 of the fluid lubricant used in assembly 100 at the bottom thereof. A third chamber 3 is located within housing wall 15 forward of chamber 2 and is separated therefrom by second portion wall 34. Chamber 3 contains differential gear 5. A third reservoir 36 of the fluid lubricant used in assembly 100 may be found at the bottom of chamber 3. A fourth chamber referenced by numeral 4 is located within housing 15 forward of chamber 3. Chamber 4 is in fluid connection with chamber 3 and contains forward bearing member 26 that supports input shaft 6 for rotation. Although, as previously described, it is known to utilize ring gear 22 to convey fluid lubricant from reservoir 28 of chamber 1 upwardly such as by splash and deposit the fluid in an open-sided trough in the axle assembly housing wall that is used to convey the fluid forwardly to the forward bearing support member, such trough or troughs have been heretofor horizontal and thus are ineffective in conveying the fluid lubricant forwardly when the vehicle is ascending a hill since gravity will pull the fluid lubricant backwardly and away from the forward bearing support member. The heretofor described short commings of such horizontal prior art open-sided trough is overcome by disposing a first open-sided trough 38 in the housing wall that faces into chamber 2 and is oriented substantially parallel with input shaft 6 or otherwise is substantially horizontal when the vehicle having axle assembly 100 is itself in a horizontal position. Trough 38 extends forwardly across chamber 2 to opening 9 through second partition wall 34 which is in fluid connection with a second open-sided trough in the housing wall that has its open side facing into chamber 3 and extends forwardly and downwardly thereacross and into chamber 4 and ends at the center line of bearing support member 26 referenced by letter "c". The downward slope angle of trough 40 represented by the letter "x" in FIGURE 2 is predetermined to enable the fluid lubricant to flow by gravity forwardly to the center line of bearing support member 26 while the vehicle is ascending an incline having a slope for example of about 15° above horizontal resulting in angle "x" having a slope of about 15° below horizontal. The fluid lubricant is conveyed from reservoir 32 upwardly by differential gear assembly 14 and deposited into trough 38 when ascending 14 is being rotated and may also be conveyed upwardly into trough 40 from reservoir 36 by transfer gear 16 and differential gear 5 to supplement the fluid deposited into trough 38 in the event fluid is present in reservoir 36. In operation then, when the vehicle engine is running and the vehicle is moving, fluid lubricant contained in trough 38 moves forwardly through opening 9 and downwardly and forwardly along trough 40 to the center line of bearing support member 26 to effect its lubrication, particularly when the vehicle is ascending an incline. As illustrated in FIGURE 3, the ability of open-sided trough 40 (and trough 38) to receive the fluid lubricant through the open side is enhanced by the trough including a lower lip 42 that extends into the chamber and enhances collection of the fluid lubricant into trough 40.

Claims: A system for delivering fluid lubricant to a forward bearing member (26) rotationally supporting a rotary input shaft (6) of a vehicular tandem axle assembly (100), said axle assembly (100) comprising a housing (15) enclosing: a first chamber (1) containing a rotary ring gear (22) operably connected to one axle of the tandem axle assembly (100) with a lower portion thereof immersed in a first reservoir (28) of the fluid lubricant, a second chamber (2) forward of the center of the first chamber (1) ) and separated therefrom by a first partition wall (30), said second chamber (2) containing a rotary differential assembly (14), said differential assembly (14) rotatively driven by the input shaft (6) and having a lower portion thereof immersed in a second reservoir (32) of the fluid lubricant, which reservoir (32) is separated from the first reservoir (28) and receives lubricant flung by the rotating ring gear (22) at least when in a forward driving condition. a third chamber (3) forward of the second chamber (2) and separated therefrom by a second partition wall (34), said third chamber containing; a transfer gear (16) rotatively driven by a gear (5) of the differential assembly (14) extending through an opening (2) through the second wall partition wall (34) from the second chamber (2) into the third chamber, said transfer gear (16) secured to a rotary shaft (18) having a pinion gear (20) secured thereto that drivingly rotates the ring gear (23) in response to rotation of the transfer gear (16), a fourth chamber (4) forward of the third chamber (3), said fourth chamber (4) in fluid communication with the third chamber (3) and having the forward bearing member (26) mounted therewithin; characterised in that said system comprises a first open-sided trough (38) in the housing wall (15) having the open-side thereof facing into the second chamber (2) and extending forwardly thereacross in substantial parallel relationship to the input shaft (6) and thence through an opening (9) through the second partition wall (34) in fluid connection with a second open-sided trough (40) in the housing wall (16\5) having the open side thereof facing into the third chamber (3) and extending forwardly and downwardly thereacross and into the fourth chamber (4) at a predetermined slope (X) and ending in substantial alignment with the center of the forward bearing member (26), said first trough (38) operative to collect fluid lubricant deposited therein upon conveyance thereto by the differential assembly from the second fluid lubricant reservoir (2), and said second trough slope (40) effective to enable the fluid lubricant to flow by gravity theredown to lubricate the forward bearing whilst the vehicle is on an incline as well as collect fluid lubricant deposited thereto upon rotation of the transfer gear (16). The system of claim 1 wherein the second trough downward slope (X) is about 15 degrees below horizontal. The system of claim 1 wherein at least the second trough (40) includes a lower lip (42) that extends into the third chamber (3) and is operative to enhance the deposit of fluid lubricant into the second trough (40).

Inventors: SWENSKOWSKI KEVIN MICHAEL, SZYMANSKI RICHARD KAROL, SWENSKOWSKI, KEVIN MICHAEL, SZYMANSKI, RICHARD KAROL
Applicants: EATON CORP, EATON CORPORATION
Application year: 1993
Main classification: F16H57
IPC codes: F16N21, F16H57