US 5,956,836 AGranted

Method of making a torsional damper

AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation

InventorBradley Alan Dupuie

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Abstract

A method of making a torsional damper for a motor vehicle intermediate steering shaft including the steps of forming a tubular end on a shaft of the intermediate steering shaft, forming a damper chamber in a yoke of a torsionally rigid universal coupling around and oversize relative to the tubular end of the shaft so that an uncalibrated annular clearance is defined therebetween, disposing a tubular torsion block in the uncalibrated annular clearance with an outside surface bonded to an inside surface of the damper chamber and an inside surface bonded to an outside surface of the tubular end of the shaft, and converting the uncalibrated annular chamber to a calibrated annular chamber by expanding the tubular end of the shaft inside of the damper chamber to radially compress tubular torsion block and increase the torsional stiffness thereof. In a preferred embodiment of the method according to this invention, the tubular torsion block is formed-in-place by injecting a flowable melt of an elastomeric material into the uncalibrated annular clearance which cures solid and is self-bonding to the inside surface of the damper chamber and to the outside surface of the tubular end of the shaft.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A method of making a torsional damper between a shaft and a yoke comprising the steps of:

forming a tubular end on said shaft,
forming a tubular torsion block having a predetermined radial wall thickness,
forming a damper chamber in said yoke around said tubular end of said shaft having an inside surface oversize relative to an outside surface on said tubular end of said shaft and cooperating with said outside surface in defining an uncalibrated annular clearance therebetween having a radial depth dimension substantially equal to said radial wall thickness of said tubular torsion block,
disposing said tubular torsional block in said uncalibrated annular clearance,
bonding an outside surface of said tubular torsion block to an inside surface of said damper chamber and bonding an inside surface of said tubular torsion block to an outside surface of said tubular end of said shaft so that said tubular torsion block resiliently transfers torque between said yoke and said shaft, and
converting said uncalibrated annular clearance to a calibrated annular clearance by expanding said tubular end of said shaft inside of said damper chamber thereby to decrease said radial depth dimension of said uncalibrated annular chamber and radially compress said tubular torsion block to increase the torsional stiffness of said tubular torsion block.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.