US 2010/0167604 A1Published application

Outboard marine motor that allows a large steering angle

AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.

InventorTakeshi Inaba

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Abstract

In an outboard marine motor including an upper case (4) enclosing an engine (E) and a lower case (5) fitted with a propeller (12) and connected to a lower end of the upper case, the lower case is configured to be turned relative to the upper case around a vertical axial line. The power of the engine is transmitted to the propeller via a vertical drive shaft (10) which is coaxial with the vertical axial line. Thereby, the outboard marine motor can be steered simply by turning the lower case. Because the upper case having a relatively large lateral dimension as compared with the lower case is not required to be turned, a large steering angle can be achieved without the outboard marine motor interfering with watercraft having the outboard marine motor mounted thereon. This is particularly beneficial when two or more outboard marine motors are used one next to the other.

Claims8

Dependent claims

An outboard marine motor, comprising:

an upper case receiving an internal combustion engine therein;
a mounting fixture configured to attach the upper case to a part of watercraft;
a lower case connected to a lower end of the upper case so as to be rotatable relative to the upper case around a first vertical axial line;
a propeller shaft extending in the lower case in a fore-and-aft direction;
a propeller attached to a rear end of the propeller shaft projecting from a rear end of the lower case;
a drive shaft extending vertically at least in the lower case coaxially with the first vertical axial line, and having an upper end connected to an output shaft of the engine in a torque transmitting relationship;
a torque transmitting mechanism interposed between a lower end of the drive shaft and the propeller shaft;
and
an actuator provided in the upper case and configured to selectively turn the lower case around the first vertical axial line.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.