Yieldably mounted lubricant control assemblies for piston rods

In an engine having a housing comprising a cylinder within which a piston reciprocates and a piston rod extending from the piston through a bore which extends in said housing from the cylinder to a crankcase and a lubricant control assembly which is disposed within said bore in cooperative arrangement with said piston rod and functions to separate the cylinder from the crankcase while allowing the piston rod to reciprocate axially through a lubricant control portion of the lubricant control assembly which is in forceful contact around the piston rod, the improvement which comprises a compliant housing for mounting the lubricant control assembly on the engine housing, said compliant housing being operatively disposed between the engine housing and the lubricant control portion to allow the lubricant portion to be radially displaced with respect to said bore and thereby comply with radial displacement of the reciprocating piston rod while maintaining substantially full effectiveness of the lubricant control portion acting on the piston rod, said lubricant control assembly comprising an inner sleeve, means for attaching said inner sleeve to said compliant housing such that said inner sleeve can comply with radial displacement in the reciprocating piston rod, an outer housing frictionally attached to said inner sleeve, and disk means having an axial aperture positioned peripherally about said lubricant control portion and acting on an inner surface of said outer housing and said inner sleeve for urging said lubricant control portion into forceful contact around the reciprocating piston rod.