Patent ID: 7918324

Claim:
A driving force interrupting mechanism comprising: a housing; a driving member rotatably supported in the housing to transmit a driving force and comprising an input member and an output member which have a common rotational axis and each of which has a spline; a coupling sleeve spline-connected to at least one of the input member and the output member to be movable on the input member and the output member along the rotational axis; a swing shaft; a fork attached to the housing swingably around the swing shaft to move the coupling sleeve between a connecting position and a disconnecting position, the coupling sleeve being positioned on both of the input member and the output member in the connecting position, the coupling sleeve being positioned on either the input member or the output member in the disconnecting position; an operating member integrally rotatable with the swing shaft; and a spring provided on the swing shaft between the operating member and the fork relatively rotatably with respect to the swing shaft, a motion of one of the operating member and the fork in a first direction about the swing shaft and in a second direction about the swing shaft following a motion of another of the operating member and the fork about the swing shaft in a respective direction via an elastic force of the spring.