Patent ID: 7832538

Claim:
A power takeoff assembly, comprising: a first shaft having an interface end portion with teeth on its outer diameter, the first shaft having a longitudinal axis; a second shaft having an interface end portion with teeth on its outer diameter, the second shaft having a longitudinal axis that is collinear with the longitudinal axis of the first shaft; a gap between the first shaft and the second shaft in a direction along the longitudinal axes of the shafts; an annular clutch having teeth along its inner diameter that engage the teeth of the first shaft and teeth of the second shaft when the clutch is in an engaging position, and that engage only the teeth of the first shaft or the teeth of the second shaft when it is in a disengaging position, the engaging position and the disengaging position being linearly displaced from one another along the longitudinal axis of the shafts; wherein the teeth of the annular clutch comprise at least two annular rows of teeth, a first outer row and a second outer row separated by at least one gap from the first outer row, the first outer row designed to engage the teeth of the first shaft, and the second outer row designed to engage the teeth of the second shaft, when the clutch is in the engaging position; wherein the annular clutch comprises a third annular inner row of teeth residing between the first outer row and the second outer row, the third inner row separated from the first outer row and the second outer row by gaps, wherein either drive face of each tooth of the third inner row of teeth subtends an angle that is slightly greater than a drive face of each respective tooth of the first outer row and the second outer row, thereby retaining the clutch in its engaged or disengaged position absent a force significantly greater than that required to simply move the clutch from its engaged to its disengaged position.