Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Flave F Stimpson

Robert L Benton

Stanley John Kielar

Dainis O Martinsons

Charles L Rasmer

A venting mechanism for a drive axle assembly is mounted on a side wall of a housing for a differential. The venting mechanism includes a deflector vane which is pivotally mounted on a vent tube inside the housing. The deflector vane allows air to be vented from the housing through the vent tube without lubricant being able to escape.

Venting mechanism

A seal and scraper assembly for a nut and screw actuator has an elastomeric member bonded to a metal ring. The elastomeric member has an annular lip outer portion and a helical thread form inner portion. The inner portion has a plurality of scraper or wiper surfaces interrupting the thread form at an oblique angle and cooperating with a lubricant return surface to direct lubricant, scraped from the screw thread surface, into the housing enclosing the nut and screw actuator. A web portion extends between the outer lip and the inner thread form along the same angle as each scraper surface so that a component of the assembly forces on the outer lip portion are transmitted to the scraper surface so as to increase the thread sealing and scraping forces. The metal ring has a contoured inner surface which is effective to chip ice and other foreign matter from the screw thread outboard of the elastomeric member and a pair of radially extending lugs which cooperate with recesses formed in the nut to prevent relative rotation between the nut and the seal and scraper assembly.

Growing community of inventors

Saginaw, MI, United States of America

Flave F Stimpson