Appeal No. 2000-0502
Application No. 08/890,438
the sensor will cause the range clutch 182 to be moved from
the high to low position; likewise, upon moving the shift
lever from the low-range to high-range portion of the shift
pattern (center leg to right leg in Fig. 3), the range clutch
182 will be moved from the low to high position. However, if
the operator intended to move the shift lever from the 7/8
position to the 9/10 position, but instead erroneously or
incorrectly moved it from the right leg to the center (or even
left) leg, i.e., to the 5/6 position (or even to the 1/2
position), undue wear and/or damage would result. Similarly,
wear or damage could result if the operator intended to
upshift from the 1/2 position to the 3/4 position, and
inadvertently moved the shift lever to the 7/8 position (page
6, lines 11 to 25). To prevent such wear or damage,
appellants disclose a sensor which provides a signal OS
indicative of the speed of the output shaft and thus, of the
speed of the vehicle. This signal OS and shift lever position
signal GL are fed to a controller 222 which is so programmed
that if the shift lever is moved from the low-range to the
high-range portion, the range clutch 182 will only be moved
from low to high position if the vehicle speed is greater than
7
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Last modified: November 3, 2007