Importance

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Abstract

An improved drive assembly is provided particularly for use with lawn mowers and the like for selectively coupling an engine drive shaft to rotatably drive a mower blade when a control lever is grasped by the operator, and for quickly halting blade rotation when the control lever is released while the engine is running. The drive assembly comprises a drive member secured to the end of the drive shaft and supporting an annular driven member to which the mower blade is connected for rotation relative to the drive member. A clutch ring carried loosely about the drive shaft is coupled for rotation with the driven member by intermeshing sets of relatively large drive teeth movable axially relative to each other to accommodate spring-biased axial clutch ring displacement toward a normal position in frictional engagement with a stationary brake pad on the mower housing to halt driven member rotation. An actuator yoke responsive to retraction of the control lever axially displaces the clutch ring away from the brake pad and into frictional engagement with an upwardly presented drive face on the drive member, thereby imparting rotational motion to the driven member.

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First Claim