Patent ID: 8727927

Claim:
Apparatus, comprising: a bearing assembly rotatingly supporting a pinion shaft of a differential for a motor vehicle, said bearing assembly having inner and outer rolling-contact bearings in axially spaced-apart relationship about the pinion shaft, with the inner rolling-contact bearing placed closer to a drive pinion of the pinion shaft than the outer rolling-contact bearing; a driving gear arranged on the pinion shaft between the inner and outer rolling-contact bearings and held on the pinion shaft in circumferential direction in fixed rotative engagement or formfitting engagement or both; an intermediate ring placed on the pinion shaft adjacent to the driving gear, said outer rolling-contact bearing having an inner ring placed adjacent to the intermediate ring; a locking ring clamped in an annular groove of the pinion shaft; and a spring element biasing the driving gear against an annular shoulder of the pinion shaft via the intermediate ring and the inner ring of the outer rolling-contact bearing, said spring element being constrained between the inner ring of the outer rolling-contact bearing and the locking ring.