Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Tokai Rubber Industries, Ltd.

Haruhiko Tanahashi

Nobuo Kobayashi

Masanobu Ishikawa

Shinji Miyakawa

Yoshikazu Tsukamoto

Makoto Hayashi

Akio Sugiki

Kiyokatsu Miura

Noritoshi Arai

Nobuhiro Yoshida

A steering system for a vehicle including a fixed body secured to the body of the vehicle, a fixed shaft rotatably supported by the fixed bracket, a movable bracket connected for relative axial movement to the fixed bracket, a movable shaft rotatably supported by the movable bracket and connected to the shaft so as to be axially movable relative to the fixed shaft and rotatable as one unit with the fixed shaft, a driving mechanism disposed on the fixed bracket and connected to move the movable bracket and the movable shaft axially relative to both the fixed bracket and the fixed shaft, and a control mechanism for controlling the level of the frictional force acting between the fixed bracket and the movable bracket. The control mechanism normally maintains the frictional force at a level to ensure rigidity between the fixed and movable brackets, but is operable, upon actuation of the driving mechanism, to reduce the frictional force and thereby decrease resistance to relative axial movement of the fixed and movable brackets.

Steering system

A cylindrical upper support interposed between a body of a vehicle and a piston rod of a shock absorber of the vehicle, including a generally cylindrical or annular inner rigid member, a generally cylindrical outer rigid member, and an elastic body interposed between the inner and outer rigid members for elastically connecting the inner and outer rigid members. The elastic body has two fluid chambers which are filled with a non-compressible fluid and which are formed in respective intermediate portions thereof as viewed in axial directions of the rigid members, such that the fluid chambers are opposed to each other in a diametric direction of the inner rigid member. One of the inner and outer rigid members has two wing members which extend in a substantially radial direction thereof into the two fluid chambers, respectively, such that each of the two fluid chambers is substantially divided by the corresponding wing member into two sections, and such that the corresponding wing member provides the each fluid chamber with a restricted part through which the two sections communicate with each other.

Cylindrical upper support for shock absorber

In a vehicle front suspension of the type wherein a control arm is vertically pivotally mounted to a vehicle body at two inboard end portions thereof spaced apart substantially in the vehicle longitudinal direction through respectively a front and a rear elastic linkage bearing and is horizontally pivotably connected at an outboard end portion thereof with a wheel support member bearing a knuckle arm extending rearwardly and rotatably supporting a vehicle wheel, and the free end of the knuckle arm is pivotably connected with an end portion of a tie rod for steering of the vehicle, the rear elastic linkage bearing is constructed to exhibit non-linear spring characteristics such as to exhibit a first spring constant with respect to force acting thereto in a vehicle lateral direction and not exceeding a certain value and a second spring constant which is lower than said first spring constant with respect to the lateral force exceeding said certain value, and the first spring constant of the rear elastic linkage bearing and the spring constant of the front elastic linkage bearing with respect to force acting thereto in the vehicle lateral direction are set such that the instantaneous center of pivoting of the vehicle wheel support member and the control arm together in the vehicle longitudinal direction is positioned to the rear of the axis of the tie rod.

Front suspension for a vehicle

The twin-tube type shock absorber wherein a piston-rod extends downward from a piston and penetrates a lower end portion of an outer shell. Pressurized gas in a reservoir chamber is positioned in an upper portion of the outer shell where the piston-rod does not penetrate the outer shell. Since a seal disposed between the piston-rod and the lower end portion of the outer shell is not exposed to the gas in the reservoir chamber, no gas leakage occurs through the portion where the piston-rod penetrates the outer shell. In addition, the piston-rod is connected to a member disposed on a wheel side of a suspension spring of a vehicle, so that vibrational characteristics of a vehicle body is improved and bubbling of a liquid in the outer shell is suppressed.

Twin-tube type shock absorber

A dual link type suspension for suspending a body of a vehicle with respect to a wheel, including a wheel support member for supporting the wheel to be rotatable about a horizontal axis generally lateral to the vehicle body, front and rear link members arranged side by side and extending generally horizontally and laterally to the vehicle body and generally flexibly connected with the vehicle body at their inboard ends and with the wheel support member at their outboard ends, the connection between the front link member and the wheel support member being forward from the axis of rotation of the wheel by a distance L1, while the connection between the rear link member and the wheel support member being rearward from the axis of rotation of the wheel by a distance L2, and a strut rod member extending generally horizontally and longitudinally to the vehicle body and generally flexibly connected with the vehicle body at one end thereof and with the vehicle support member at another end thereof, wherein the front and rear link members inclined relative to an exact lateral direction of the vehicle body by a first angle t1 and a second angle t2, respectively, and wherein, by expressing these first and second angles in positive values or negative values according to whether the front and rear link members are inclined rearwardly or forwardly as viewed from the outboard ends thereof toward the inboard ends thereof, respectively, wherein the sum L2.times.tan (t1) and L1.times.tan (t2) is a substantial positive value.

Vehicle rear wheel suspension with dual links extending in the overall

A stabilizer for a vehicle suspension has a central rod portion supported so as to be rotatable about its own axis by the vehicle body. An arm portion is coupled to a shock absorber by a connecting link at one end pivotally attached to the end of the arm portion and at the other end pivotally connected to the shock absorber. The pivot point between the arm portion and the connecting link is positioned below the pivot point of the shock absorber and the connecting link and is positioned on the opposite side of the axis of the shock absorber relative to the central rod portion when the vehicle wheel is in a neutral position. The pivot point between the arm portion and the connecting link moves along a locus which has a region such that the minimum distance from the pivot point to the axis of the shock absorber decreases with an increase in the vertical displacement of the vehicle wheel from the neutral position.

Structure for mounting stabilizer in vehicle suspension

In a rack and pinion type steering gear device having a rack guide to urge a rack from behind for applying a preload to the meshing engagement of tooth surfaces of the rack and pinion, wherein the rack guide is formed of an oleoresinous material having a low coefficient of friction and elastically deformable to a compression load to a predetermined value. The rack guide can bear a high load as compared with the conventional rack guide for the same displacement value, so that the rack guide can have a resisting force of a high value. Because of this, the pinion and the rack which are urged by the rack guide are not easily separated from each other under an external force. The rack guide preferably includes a guide body having a rack sliding surface and outer peripheral ribs, and an elastic ring having the bottom end portion extending towards a nut farther by a predetermined value than the bottom end portion of said outer peripheral ribs and being elastically deformable to a compression load.

Rack and pinion type steering gear device

A front wheel support structure for an automobile comprises a first support fixed to a body, a second support disposed beneath and spaced at the inner portion thereof from the first support, contacting a bound stopper at the underside of the inner peripheral portion and secured fixedly to the first support at the outer peripheral portion, a mount rubber disposed between both supports, a connecting member secured fixedly to the mount rubber and mounted on the upper portion of a piston rod of a shock absorber and a bearing seat disposed at the underside of the second support and contacting a spring seat for receiving the upper end of a coil spring. In use of the support structure, force from the piston rod is transmitted from the mount rubber through the first support to the body, force from the bound stopper is transmitted from the second support through the first support to the body and force from the coil spring is transmitted from the spring seat to the bearing seat and further through the second and first supports to the body respectively.

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Toyota, Japan

Haruhiko Tanahashi