Patent ID: 7406934

Claim:
A valve timing controller disposed in a drive system which transmits torque of a drive shaft to a driven shaft for opening and closing of a valve to thereby control opening and closing timing of the valve, the valve timing controller comprising: a first rotating element which rotates in association with the drive shaft; a second rotating element which rotates in association with the driven shaft; a link mechanism part including arm members for coupling the first rotating element and the second rotating element as a revolute pair to change a relative rotational phase between the first rotating element and the second rotating element caused by motion of the revolute pair of the arm members; a gear part including a first gear and a second gear to convert outside rotating torque to control torque for the motion of the revolute pair of the arm members due to coupling of and planetary motion of one of the first and second gears relative to the other of the first and second gears; and a separation member disposed between the gear part and the link mechanism part for separating a thrust gap of the gear part and a thrust gap of the link mechanism part, wherein: the separation member is provided at one of the first rotating element and the second rotating element, the gear part includes a face and the link mechanism part includes an axial end face that opposes the face of the gear part, and the separation member extends radially along and between the face of the gear part and the axial end face of the link mechanism part.