Patent ID: 7189179

Claim:
A transfer case comprising: an input shaft; an output shaft; a planetary gear assembly interconnecting said input shaft to said output shaft and including a sun gear splined to said input shaft, a ring gear, and a set of planet gears supported by a carrier assembly and meshed with said sun gear and said ring gear, said carrier assembly is fixed to said output shaft; a coupling ring interconnecting said ring gear to said sun gear to facilitate relative rotation therebetween and axial movement of said sun gear on said input shaft in response to axial movement of said ring gear; a range clutch including a first clutch plate fixed to said carrier assembly, a second clutch plate fixed to a stationary member, and a range sleeve fixed to said ring gear and axially moveable between a high-range position and a low-range position to establish corresponding high-range and low-range drive connections between said input shaft and said output shaft, said range sleeve is operable in its high-range position to couple said sun gear to said first clutch plate and release said ring gear from coupled engagement with said second clutch plate, and said range sleeve is operable in its low-range position to release said sun gear from couple engagement with said first clutch plate and couple said ring gear to said second clutch plate; and a shift mechanism for moving said range sleeve between its high-range and low-range positions.