Patent attributes
A transaxle includes a transaxle casing, a bi-directional overrunning clutch in the transaxle casing, a friction mechanism, and a clutch-off biasing mechanism. The bi-directional overrunning clutch includes coaxial input and output members journalled by the transaxle casing, and includes a cage disposed between the input member and the output member. Rollers carried by the cage are rotatable to follow rotation of the output member. The cage is rotatable relative to the input member according to the rotation of the rollers following the output member until the rollers contact the input member to engage the bi-directional overrunning clutch. The friction mechanism applies a friction resistance to the cage to rotate the cage relative to the input member. The clutch-off biasing mechanism biases the cage to the initial position. The friction mechanism and the clutch-off biasing mechanism are distributed in the transaxle casing at first and second end portions of the cage.
