Hightower,
I make gearboxes and transfer boxes for a living, I cant see your animation, but I imagine its just a basic representation of how involute forms mesh. Typical gears can be just the gear itself, but (in the case of most transfer boxes) a lot of gears have a set of secondary dog gears on one end. take this component that we make in work:
![[Image: FTC1741-GEAR-HIGH-OUTPUT-LT230.jpg]](http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/040dada3711e8b70788eeab568c355a9ace5454c/FTC1741-GEAR-HIGH-OUTPUT-LT230.jpg)
as you can see, there is a helical gear, and a dog gear on the same component. this is a high output gear (which is what will be driving when you are in the 2H or 4H range). there is another larger gear which faces this which is made in exactly the same fashion, this is the Low gear (which is what will be driving when you are in the 4L range) It looks like this:
![[Image: FTC1084.jpg]](http://www.shop4autoparts.net/Images/Product/Default/large/FTC1084.jpg)
As you can see, its basically the same as the high gear, except there are more teeth, and the outside diameter is larger (which means it will provide a lot more torque, being bigger). the dog teeth on this component are identical to the ones on the high gear.
Now, both of these gear mate CONSTANTLY with their respective mating part (both gear mate to the same "cluster" gear - a cluster gear is simply a gear with more than one gear on the same part). the mating part looks like this:
![[Image: FRC5426-GEAR-CLUSTER-LT230-TRANSFER-BOX.jpg]](http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/a951a09dbcc3f2976b815be39fa0bf531ad80db2/FRC5426-GEAR-CLUSTER-LT230-TRANSFER-BOX.jpg)
So you can see this cluster has 3 gear on it. the smaller diameter gear is the one which mates to the larger low gear, the bottom gear (as you look at it) is which gear mates to the high gear, and the centre gear is the one which mates to the input gear, which is where all the drive comes from for the whole system (this would be take directly from the engine in the case of the gearbox).
You can see what the whole assembly looks like here:
![[Image: lt230_a_big.jpg]](http://www.geoffrey-miller.demon.co.uk/rrr/transfer/images/lt230_a_big.jpg)
you might be wondering to yourself now, if these gear are all meshed together at the same time, how is it that only one set is driving at any one time? The answer to that lies in the dog teeth, which are attached to the high, and low gears. these dog gears mesh with a coupling sleeve assembly, which looks like this:
![[Image: RTC4373-HIGH-LOW-GEAR-SLEEVE-AND-HUB.jpg]](http://www.lrseries.com/resources/user/0736f7947926034c3907b36c4e47121525095754/RTC4373-HIGH-LOW-GEAR-SLEEVE-AND-HUB.jpg)
what happens is inside the cabin, when you select a different gear ratio (be it a gear, or in this case, a range for your transfer box). the gear lever moves a selector rod which is attached to the coupling sleeve (you can see the bronze selector rod in the assembly picture above). this takes the drive off of one gear, and onto another one (either high, or low), as only one of these can be engaged at once due to the design of the coupling sleeve.
so moving the selctor switch engages either the high gear or low gear with the diff cage (this is the part the high/low/and coupling sleeves all slide over)
heres a video that helps explain it:
Gearbox operation with clutch
hopefully ive not made that too confusing for you.
I make gearboxes and transfer boxes for a living, I cant see your animation, but I imagine its just a basic representation of how involute forms mesh. Typical gears can be just the gear itself, but (in the case of most transfer boxes) a lot of gears have a set of secondary dog gears on one end. take this component that we make in work:
as you can see, there is a helical gear, and a dog gear on the same component. this is a high output gear (which is what will be driving when you are in the 2H or 4H range). there is another larger gear which faces this which is made in exactly the same fashion, this is the Low gear (which is what will be driving when you are in the 4L range) It looks like this:
As you can see, its basically the same as the high gear, except there are more teeth, and the outside diameter is larger (which means it will provide a lot more torque, being bigger). the dog teeth on this component are identical to the ones on the high gear.
Now, both of these gear mate CONSTANTLY with their respective mating part (both gear mate to the same "cluster" gear - a cluster gear is simply a gear with more than one gear on the same part). the mating part looks like this:
So you can see this cluster has 3 gear on it. the smaller diameter gear is the one which mates to the larger low gear, the bottom gear (as you look at it) is which gear mates to the high gear, and the centre gear is the one which mates to the input gear, which is where all the drive comes from for the whole system (this would be take directly from the engine in the case of the gearbox).
You can see what the whole assembly looks like here:
you might be wondering to yourself now, if these gear are all meshed together at the same time, how is it that only one set is driving at any one time? The answer to that lies in the dog teeth, which are attached to the high, and low gears. these dog gears mesh with a coupling sleeve assembly, which looks like this:
what happens is inside the cabin, when you select a different gear ratio (be it a gear, or in this case, a range for your transfer box). the gear lever moves a selector rod which is attached to the coupling sleeve (you can see the bronze selector rod in the assembly picture above). this takes the drive off of one gear, and onto another one (either high, or low), as only one of these can be engaged at once due to the design of the coupling sleeve.
so moving the selctor switch engages either the high gear or low gear with the diff cage (this is the part the high/low/and coupling sleeves all slide over)
heres a video that helps explain it:
Gearbox operation with clutch
hopefully ive not made that too confusing for you.