Patent ID: 6866611

Claim:
A vehicle range shift mechanism comprising: a range selecting mechanism for selecting a shift range; a drive mechanism that is interlocked with and drives the range selecting mechanism; a range operating mechanism for operating a changeover valve with the driving force of the drive mechanism to change the shift range of an automatic transmission; a transmitting mechanism for transmitting driving force of the drive mechanism to the range operating mechanism; a first range detection section that detects a shift range corresponding to an operating position of the transmitting mechanism; a second range detection section that detects an actual shift range as changed by the range operating mechanism; a judging section that judges whether or not the shift ranges detected by the first and second range detection sections are in mutual agreement; a failure judging section that judges a failure of the first range detection section when the detected ranges are judged by the judging section as not in mutual agreement; a controller that executes a preset fail-safe procedure when the failure judging section judges a failure; and a speed detecting sensor that detects a vehicle traveling speed, and wherein the controller generates an alarm and stops the drive mechanism as a fail-safe procedure, responsive to judgement of failure by the failure judging section, detection of a traveling range by the second range detection section, and detection of a traveling speed equal to or greater than a predetermined value by the speed detecting sensor.