Patent ID: 8117936

Claim:
A gear support mechanism for supporting two gears and an intermediate gear which meshes with said two gears to transfer rotation of one of said two gears to the other, said gear support mechanism comprising: at least one gear-shaft support member which supports a gear shaft of said intermediate gear; and a spring member installed between said gear-shaft support member and said intermediate gear, wherein said spring member includes a gear contacting portion which is in contact with said intermediate gear, and a plurality of resilient support legs which are resiliently deformable, extending radially from said gear contacting portion and are in contact with said gear-shaft support member, said spring member biasing said intermediate gear in a direction of an axis of said gear shaft by resiliently deforming said plurality of resilient support legs, and wherein at least a part of each said two gears is positioned in an inter-leg space between adjacent resilient support legs of said plurality of resilient support legs as viewed in a direction along a central axis of rotation of said intermediate gear.