Patent ID: 7493998

Claim:
A bi-directional overrunning clutch, comprising: an input gear; a cam gear, disposed within the input gear, having an inner cam surface; a pair of hubs, each adapted to engage an end of one of a pair of shaft segments of a primary drive axle for rotation therewith; a roller assembly disposed within the cam gear, the roller assembly including a plurality of rollers arranged in two sets of rollers, a roll cage having a plurality of recesses, each roller being located within one of the recesses, the roll cage being located about at least a portion of each hub so as to position each set of rollers about at least a portion of one of the hubs, and a spring pin extending from the roll cage and having a ball lock adapted to engage with a detent on a surface of one of the hubs so as to form a spring pin engagement between the roller assembly and the hub; and wherein the inner cam surface is adapted to provide a wedging engagement with the rollers of the roller assembly when the input gear is rotated in a first direction relative to the roller assembly such that rotation of the input gear causes rotation of the roller assembly via the wedging engagement, and rotation of the roller assembly causes rotation of the hub via the spring pin engagement between the ball lock and the detent on the surface of the hub, and wherein the spring pin is adapted to disengage the spring pin engagement when the hub rotates faster than the rotation of the roller assembly.