Patent ID: 6837819

Claim:
A transfer case for a four-wheel drive vehicle including a transmission and a front and a rear axle comprising: a housing; an input shaft rotatably supported by said housing and receiving power from the transmission; front and rear output shafts rotatably supported by said housing, said front output shaft connected to the front axle and the rear output shaft connected to the rear axle; a common carrier assembly, said common carrier assembly supporting a reduction planetary gear set and a differential planetary gear set, said common carrier assembly, including a drive plate, a differential plate and a reduction plate, said reduction planetary gear set including a reduction sun gear, a reduction ring gear and at least one reduction planet gear, said reduction sun gear integrally formed with said input shaft and rotating with said input shaft, said at least one reduction planet gear engaging said reduction sun gear and rotatably supported by said common carrier assembly between said drive plate and said reduction plate, said reduction ring gear engaging said at least one reduction planetary gear, said differential planetary gear set including a front differential planetary gear set and a rear differential planetary gear set, said front differential planetary gear set including a front differential sun dear connected to said front output shaft, at least one front differential planetary gear supported between said drive plate and said differential plate of said common carrier assembly and engaging said front differential sun gear, said rear differential planetary gear set including a rear differential sun gear connected to said rear output shaft, at least one rear differential planetary gear supported between said drive plate and said differential plate of said common carrier assembly and engaging said rear differential sun gear; a clutch, said clutch engaging said reduction ring gear and operative to directly couple said reduction ring gear to at least one of the following, said housing or to said common carrier assembly; and an actuator, said actuator engaging said clutch and operative to selectively position said clutch; wherein said drive plate includes a plurality of gear teeth on at least a portion of the outer periphery thereof, wherein said plurality of gear teeth are operable to engage said clutch.