Drive system for motor vehicles

Claim 1

In a drive system for use in a motor vehicle having a direction of travel and having an axis which is transverse to said direction of travel, a change-speed transmission adapted to be driven by said motor and having an output member adapted to be nonrotatably connected to a first idler gear, two front axle drive shafts which are transverse to said direction of travel, a rear axle assembly extending transversely to said direction of travel, a rear axle drive shaft extending in said direction of travel and coupled to said rear axle assembly to drive the latter, said drive system comprising, a front axle differential adapted to be coupled to said output member and coupled to said front axle drive shafts to drive the latter, an angle drive adapted to be coupled to said rear axle drive shaft to drive the latter, the improvement residing in that said drive system comprises: a planetary gear train comprising first, second and third torque-transmitting members, a detachably mounted second idler gear adapted to mesh with said first idler gear and operatively connected to said angle drive to drive the latter, and a liquid friction coupling having a first coupling half which is held against rotation and a rotatable second coupling half coupled to said third torque-transmitting member, wherein said first torque-transmitting member is operatively connected to said second idler gear, said second torque-transmitting member is operatively connected to said front axle differential, and said differential, planetary gear train, liquid friction coupling, and angle drive constitute a subassembly.