Patent ID: 8012058

Claim:
A differential gear mechanism for a vehicle, comprising: a housing driven to rotate about a rotational axis and including contact surfaces; first and second sun gears provided within the housing to be rotatable about the rotational axis, each of the first and second sun gears including an external gear portion at an outer periphery; first and second planetary gears rotatably provided within the housing and engaging with the external gear portions of the sun gears respectively, the planetary gears engaging with each other; the first and second sun gears including axial end surfaces respectively pressed against the contact surfaces of the housing by the first and second sun gears being pressed along the rotational axis by means of thrust forces generated at engagement surfaces between the external gear portions of the first and second sun gears and the first and second planetary gears respectively; and each of the first and second sun gears including a first portion having the external gear portion, a second portion formed separately from the first portion, and a thrust force generating mechanism formed between the first portion and the second portion for generating thrust forces at the first portion and the second portion in a direction parallel with the rotational axis when a power transmission is performed between the first portion and the second portion, wherein a direction of the thrust force generated at the first portion by the thrust force generating mechanism is specified to be equal to a direction of the thrust force generated at the first portion by means of the engagement between each of the external gear portions and each of the first and second planetary gears.