Patent ID: 8007391

Claim:
A differential apparatus for a vehicle comprising: an orthogonal axis gear having a crown gear and a drive pinion gear that meshes with said crown gear and has an offset of zero or close to zero, said orthogonal axis gear shifting a rotation direction of an input shaft transmitting engine power to an orthogonal direction; a planetary gear reduction mechanism portion, to which said engine power is transmitted from said orthogonal axis gear, provided as a continuation of said crown gear; and a differential gear mechanism portion for transmitting said engine power to the left and right output shafts, wherein said orthogonal axis gear, said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion and said differential gear mechanism portion are arranged along an axial center direction of said left and right output shafts, said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion is constituted such that a sun gear of the planetary gear reduction mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of said crown gear, a ring gear thereof is fixed to a differential case, and a planetary carrier of the planetary gear reduction mechanism portion serves as an output, and said differential gear mechanism portion employs a planetary gear mechanism and is constituted such that a ring gear of said planetary gear mechanism is provided as a continuation of said planetary carrier of said planetary gear reduction mechanism portion, a planetary carrier of the differential gear mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of one of said left and right output shafts, and a sun gear of the differential gear mechanism portion is provided as a continuation of the other of said left and right output shafts.