Wobble plate engine stabilizer mechanism

Abstract

A wobble plate engine mechanism includes a stabilizer mechanism operating between a wobble plate and a mounting on the engine cylinder block or associated engine case. The stabilizer mechanism has first and second mutually inclined, elongate link means, the first link means having one end connected to the wobble plate by a first pivotal coupling and the second link means having one end connected to the mounting by a second pivotal coupling, spaced axially with respect to the mainshaft from the first coupling, with the link means being connected together at their other ends by a third pivotal coupling. The third coupling is centered on a bisecting plane for the wobble plate, the plane bisecting the angle between the wobble plate and a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the mainshaft. The third pivotal coupling has three degrees of freedom, and the second pivotal coupling contrains the second link means so as to be pivotable only on a pivot axis which is spaced from and substantially at right angles to the mainshaft. The engine mechanism may include a drawing system for altering the displacement of the mechanism, the drawing system including an annular cylinder fixed to the cylinder block or to an associated engine case, the cylinder being concentric with respect to the mainshaft and having therein a non-rotatably annular piston axially fixed relative to the mainshaft, the system being operable such that movement of the piston under pressure moves the mainshaft along its axis.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.