Steering gear for motor vehicles
AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorsGregory P. Collier, Michael P. Anspaugh, Terry E. Burkhard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A motor vehicle rack and pinion steering gear having torsional damping by friction between an annular plastic damper ring on a housing of the steering gear and a journal surface on a pinion shaft of the steering gear. The damper ring has an outer wall press fitted in a pinion shaft bore of the housing to nonrotatably mount the ring on the housing and a plurality of flexible inner fingers resiliently bearing against the journal surface. An annular metal spring is disposed on the damper ring and includes a plurality of integral legs bearing against the flexible inner fingers of the damper ring to press the fingers against the journal surface.
Claims4
A rack and pinion steering gear comprising:
- a housing having a cylindrical pinion shaft bore aligned on a pinion shaft axis of said housing,
- a pinion shaft means having an outboard end adapted for connection to a manual steering wheel and a pinion gear adjacent an inboard end of said pinion shaft means,
- means mounting said pinion shaft means on said housing in said pinion shaft bore for rotation about said pinion shaft axis,
- means on said pinion shaft means defining a cylindrical journal surface spaced from and concentric with said pinion shaft bore,
- an annular plastic damper ring disposed in said pinion shaft bore having an annular web in a plane perpendicular to said pinion shaft axis and an outer wall integral with said web facing said pinion shaft bore and a plurality of flexible inner fingers integral with said web bearing against said journal surface of said pinion shaft means,
- means operative to nonrotatably connect said outer wall of said damper ring to said pinion shaft bore, and
- a spring means disposed on said plastic damper ring including a plurality of inner legs each bearing against respective ones of said flexible inner fingers of said damper ring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.