Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Ferdous M Ghazi

Yunjun Li

Chi-Mou Ni

Steven K Mackenzie

James Logan, Jr

Jeffry Pniewski

David M Caldwell

Teodorico G Terry

John A Roby

William A Morris

Myron P Sedman

A mounting assembly is configured to join a vehicle body to a vehicle chassis with a bolt. The mounting assembly includes an outer tube and an inner sleeve. The outer tube defines a sleeve channel, and is configured to be fixed to one of the vehicle chassis and the vehicle body. The inner sleeve is disposed within the sleeve channel of the outer tube, and defines a bolt hole configured to receive the bolt. The outer tube, the inner sleeve, and the bolt cooperate to join the vehicle body to the vehicle chassis. An initiation slot is defined in the outer tube, such that the sleeve channel is an incomplete cylindrical shell.

Chassis mount structure

A suspension strut includes a suspension strut bearing and a deflector seal. The suspension strut bearing has an upper portion mounted above a lower portion and a bearing seal mounted therebetween. The upper portion does not rotate with a steerable assembly while the lower portion does, with the upper portion including a lower surface adjacent to a seal opening. The deflector seal is elastomeric and is a toroidal shape, having a radially inner portion and a radially outer portion. The inner portion is secured against the lower portion of the strut bearing, and the outer portion is cantilevered outward from the inner portion to allow for elastic flexing of the outer portion. The outer portion allows for upward elastic flexing into contact with the lower surface of the upper portion of the strut bearing when a fluid or contaminant impinges upon a lower surface of the outer portion.

Suspension strut bearing deflector seal

A vehicle frame has side rails which support the suspension system and body of the vehicle. The side rails have a rectangular cross-section with the end sections thereof having predetermined wall thicknesses and rectangular size, and a center section having a thinner wall thickness and a larger height dimension of the rectangular cross-section. A transition section connects respective end sections with the center section. The transition section has rectangular cross-sections and wall thickness at the respective junctures which matches the adjoining section. The frame side rail is manufactured by prebending a cylindrical tube of constant wall thickness into a shape consistent with the desired final shape; then hydroforming an intermediate work piece in a first die to provide wall thickness and perimeter characteristics commensurate with the final product; and then further hydroforming the intermediate work piece in a second die to provide the finished product or to provide two components which are joined to form the final frame side rail. When two intermediate work pieces are processed, each is formed with an end section and a part of the center section.

Hydroformed side rail for a vehicle frame and method of manufacture

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Troy, MI, United States of America

Ferdous M Ghazi