Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Akio Miguchi

Shinichi Tamba

Makizo Hirata

Noboru Fukui

Tetsuzo Fujikawa

Toshio Araki

Atsufumi Ozaki

Hitomi Miyake

Yasuo Okada

Takeshi Miyazaki

Yasutaka Kobayashi

Shigeru Nishimura

Hiroshi Yagii

Yuichi Onaka

Fukui Noboru

Miyake Hitomi

A vehicle includes a first detecting means for detecting an engine speed, a second detecting means for detecting a rotational speed of a rotating member, an engine speed changing means for changing the engine speed, and a control unit. The control unit is electrically connected to the first detecting means, the second detecting means, and the engine speed changing means and controls the engine speed changing means when the rotational speed of the rotating member detected by the second detecting means is lower than a set rotational speed previously set in a range from zero to a rotational speed of the rotating member during rotation of the engine in a range between a speed more than an idle rotational speed and a speed less than a predetermined maximum limit rotational speed.

Vehicle and four wheeled vehicle for irregular ground

A jet-propulsion personal watercraft comprises a body including a hull and a deck, an engine mounted in the body, a driving power output changing system configured to be able to change a driving power output of the engine, a controller configured to control an operation of the driving power output changing system, and a pressure sensor configured to be able to detect a pressure which is applied to the body from the water on which the body is floating, the pressure having a component in a lateral direction of the body, wherein the controller includes a turning determiner configured to determine whether or not the body is turning, based on a signal received from the pressure sensor; and a driving power output control unit configured to control the driving power output changing system based on information received from the turning determiner.

Driving power output control for personal watercraft

A personal watercraft comprises an engine which is mounted in a body of the watercraft and is equipped with an open-loop water cooling system; a coolant passage in which water for cooling the engine flows; a water flow generator configured to operate in association with the engine to generate a water flow in the coolant passage; and a valve unit configured to restrict a flow of the water in the coolant passage.

Personal watercraft

An all-terrain vehicle, which limits a speed of backward movement of the vehicle to a predetermined speed and which assures a necessary power output while limiting the backward speed, without a driver's taking any manual trouble to operate a switch to control an engine of the vehicle, even though a high load is exerted upon the vehicle. The all-terrain vehicle includes a vehicle speed sensor device, a backward movement positional sensor device, and an engine controller for limiting the engine speed of the vehicle when the backward movement positional sensor device detects that the vehicle is running backward and when the vehicle speed sensor device detects that the vehicle speed reaches a predetermined value, thereby limiting the speed of the vehicle running backward.

All-terrain vehicle

Disclosed is a four-wheel-drive all terrain vehicle capable of smoothly braking wheels in braking operation of rear wheels and having simplified structures of a drive force disconnecting device and a 2WD/4WD switching device. The drive force disconnecting device is provided in a power transmission path for front-wheel-drive, for engagement/disengagement between a cam shaft and an outer race by means of a torque transmission member such as rollers, to allow a driven-side rotary member such as the outer race to become free when a drive-side rotary member such as the cam shaft is braked during 4WD. The rollers are provided between a plurality of cam faces formed on the cam shaft and a cylindrical friction face formed on the outer race, and they are placed in a torque transmission state (4WD) in which the rollers are pressed between the cam faces and the cylindrical friction face or a torque transmission release state in which the rollers are not pressed between them.

Four-wheel-drive all terrain vehicle

Disclosed are a transmission lever unit for vehicle comprising: a single transmission lever for operating the transmission unit; a first lever member swingable around a first pivot and having a second pivot; and a second lever member integrally attached to a base end portion of the transmission lever and swingable around the second pivot orthogonal to the first pivot, the transmission lever unit being adapted to select a desired combination of gear trains of first and second systems of the transmission through independent connecting means of the first and second systems by an operation of the lever, wherein the first connecting means is adapted to operate by swing operation of the transmission lever around the first pivot, and the second connecting means is adapted to operate by swing operation of the transmission lever around the second pivot, and a mounting structure of a coil spring held by two members disposed such that at least part of the members are substantially parallel to each other, for elastically connecting the two members via the coil spring, the structure having openings at parts of the members which are substantially parallel to each other so as to overlap with each other as seen from one direction, and the coil spring disposed in the openings.

Transmission lever unit for vehicle and mounting structure of coil spring

An all terrain vehicle comprising a V-belt continuously variable transmission and a gear-type transmission, being capable of transmitting drive torque from an engine with controlled engine braking but without loss of the torque, thereby giving a rider an improved driving feel. The V-belt continuously variable transmission and the gear-type transmission are placed in this order from upstream in a power transmission path from the engine to wheels. A one-way clutch for transmitting only the drive torque from the engine to the wheel and a torque limiter for transmitting the torque less than a predetermined value are arranged in parallel, between, e.g., a countershaft and forward intermediate gears fitted onto the countershaft.

Power transmission device of all terrain vehicle and all terrain vehicle

A cooling device is provided for an engine having a cylinder head, a crankcase and a crankcase cover. The device includes a jacket formed in the crankcase for retaining therein a liquid cooling medium, and a plurality of fins is provided on the crankcase. A cooling fan is provided and an air leading cover is arranged to surround the fan, cylinder head, crankcase and at least a portion of the crankcase cover for leading air downwardly to the fins to cool the cylinder head, crankcase and crankcase cover.

Engine cooling system

Muffler apparatus including an elongated muffler which is connectable to an engine body via two exhaust pipes. The muffler includes a first expansion chamber which extends along the entire length of the muffler, and the two exhaust pipes are connected separately adjacent opposite ends, or in the vicinity of the ends, of the muffler on the side of the muffler at which the first expansion chamber is located.

Engine exhaust muffler apparatus

An engine comprises a first cylinder and a second cylinder adapted to perform explosions at such timing that an interval from the explosion in the first cylinder to the explosion in the second cylinder is shorter than an interval from the explosion in the second cylinder to the explosion in first cylinder, an intake manifold having an intake passage, and branch passages communicating the intake passage with the first and the second cylinders. The engine has at least one of the construction that an interval from the explosion in the second cylinder to the intake operation of the second cylinder is set longer than the interval from the explosion in the first cylinder to the intake operation of the first cylinder, and the construction that an interval in which intake and exhaust operations of the second cylinder are overlapped is set shorter than an interval in which intake and exhaust operations of the first cylinder are overlapped, so as to reduce misfire during low speed idling and to enable the engine to produce large output power during high load operation.

V-type engine having different explosion intervals

A muffler cooling device for a V-type engine which includes an engine cooling fan disposed at an end of a crankshaft. An air guide plate is provided at a part of a duct through which air sucked by the cooling fan flows, and the duct has at least one opening through which the air flows as being guided by the air guide plate. The arrangement is such that the air having flown through the opening is led, through a space surrounded by a V-bank formed by cylinder heads and an intake manifold, to an area in which a muffler and exhaust pipes extending from the cylinder heads to the muffler are arranged.

Muffler cooling device for V-type engine

A power transmission apparatus has a first shaft and a second shaft which are supported by an aluminum housing, and an iron gear and a synthetic resin gear which are respectively mounted on the two shafts and are engaged with each other. The synthetic resin used for the synthetic resin gear contains an aromatic polyamide fiber.

Power transmission apparatus

A drive device for coolant pumps having a pump shaft, a boss having a bore in which the pump shaft is rotatably disposed and a driven gear made from synthetic resin to transmit the rotational power from the crankshaft to the impeller to move the coolant into circulation through the coolant jacket for engine cooling, is disclosed which comprises a pin, fixedly implanted in radial pattern in the circumference of the pump shaft, a couple of radially extending grooves outwardly from the center of the driven gear bore in that side of the driven gear facing the impeller to receive therein fittingly the pin, respectively, and a washer mounted about the pump shaft between the front end face of the bore and the pin so as to prevent the pump shaft from falling off from its bore. When the driven gear is driven by the crankshaft, the pin closely fitted in the grooves transmits the torque to the pump shaft, without any slip. This arrangement can eliminates the conventional metal bushing fitted in the driven gear about the pump shaft to insure fit between the pump shaft and driven gear.

Drive device for coolant pumps

A cooling system for V-type engine comprises rows of left and right cylinders arranged in V-type and having coolant jackets, respectively. A coolant pump having a pump shaft parallel to a crankshaft is arranged with a V-bank and at a place away from each cylinder in an axial direction of said crankshaft, and coolant jacket inlets are provided on the side of the coolant pump of each cylinder. Alternately, the coolant jacket inlets of the cylinders are opened respectively at one end face in the direction of the crankshaft of a crankcase-forming member, and a distributing exit passage is defined by joint faces of said crankcase-forming member, a pump casing and a pump casing cover respectively.

Cooling system for vertical shaft V-type engine

A compression release device for side-valve and overhead-valve internal combustion engines is disclosed, which takes advantages of the difference in thermal expansion of different materials to control the valve opening depending on the condition of ambient temperature. A first material of comparatively higher linear expansion coefficient is used for the cylinders and cylinder head, while a second material of comparatively lower expansion coefficient for the push rods and tappets for either or both of the intake and exhaust valves, with the valve or valves being set to take a valve lift enough to cause the valve, upon compression stroke, to remain properly slightly open at cold start to ease crankshaft rotation, while stay fully shut, as a result of the cylinders and cylinder head having undergone a greater degree of thermal expansion than the push rods and tappets, when the engine gets warmed up.

Growing community of inventors

Kobe, Japan

Akio Miguchi