Caterpillar Tractor Co.

Ivan R Lamport

Charles H Herr, Jr

Harold H Bartlett, Jr

John R Muntjanoff

Robert W Untz

Keith E Koch

Bennett W Avery

Lionel L Kinney

Clarence A Welch

Glen A Ball

Orville E Kessinger

A symmetrical splined drive shaft interconnects a specially configured socketed flywheel with the drive train of a vehicle. The socketed flywheel is formed to receive a retaining ring so that when a portion of the flywheel housing and the drive train are separated from the remaining portion of the flywheel housing encompassing the flywheel the symmetrical splined drive shaft disposed in the flywheel socket remains associated with the specially configured flywheel. The splining is formed to allow limited misalignment of the driving shaft and the driven drive train while an axial bore through the symmetrical shaft communicates lubricant from the drive train to the spline remote of the drive train.

Engine flywheel and interconnecting drive shaft

A vehicle final drive assembly includes a housing structure, a final drive gear having an internal coupling, an axis and a central load bearing plane transverse to the axis, a bearing assembly connected between the housing structure and the final drive gear for supporting the final drive gear for rotation about the axis, the bearing assembly being located substantially on the central plane of the final drive gear, and a shaft having an external coupling connected to and supported by the internal coupling of the final drive gear.

Vehicle final drive assembly

A disc brake dynamometer including a base, a shaft adapted to be coupled to a rotary motive source to be tested, a pair of axially spaced, fluid-cooled, disc brakes concentric about the shaft and each having two relatively rotatable members, one of the members of each brake being journalled on the shaft and being affixed to the base, thereby journalling the shaft on the base and the other of the two relatively rotatable members being connected to the shaft for rotation therewith, and a load measuring device connected to the members which are affixed to the base. Two embodiments are disclosed.

Dynamometer employing multiple disc brake assemblies

A push-pull rod assembly is provided with a housing for the push rod and a seal formed in a capsule readily fixable to a fitting associated with the housing. In one embodiment the housing is formed with a flared end while the fitting, which has a threaded outer surface, is formed with an interior bore therethrough and an axially intersecting cone shaped bore adapted to engage the outer flared surface of the housing. The bore sealing capsule carries an elastomeric seal to sealingly surround a push rod extending outwardly of the housing while the capsule is threadably engaged with the fitting. The capsule is formed with a frustoconical projection axially centered at the base of an interior threaded socket to engage the interior of the flared end of the housing. In the second embodiment the push rod is specially coated with an inert synthetic resin having a low coefficient of friction. The sealing means which is contained in a capsule threadably engaged on a fitting fixedly associated with the push rod housing includes an elastomeric member or the like and a metallic scraper to remove dirt and ice from the specially surfaced push rod.

Push-pull cable and rod assembly with seal

A test stand for vehicles having opposed motive drive outputs including a stand for supporting the vehicle to be tested in a predetermined position with its motive drive outputs free from engagement with surrounding structure, a pair of dynamometers, one on each side of the stand, a pair of releasable couplings, one drivingly associated with each of the dynamometers, and adapted to be engaged with a corresponding one of the motive drive outputs of a vehicle on the supporting stand and a movable mount for at least the releasable couplings so that they may be moved toward and away from each other and the supporting stand. Also disclosed is an improved dynamometer construction, an improved self-aligning coupling and an improved method of testing a mobile mechanical power source such as a vehicle.

Dynamometer test stand

Apparatus for handling a large object, i.e., for example, an annular core on which a tire carcass is to be formed, includes an annular wall positionable about the annular core, and a diaphragm associated with the inner surface of the wall and defining with the wall a chamber into which pressurized fluid may be directed. Such introduction of pressurized fluid expands the diaphragm so that such diaphragm comes into contact with and grips the core. The core may then be moved and or turned over by manipulation of the wall.

Growing community of inventors

Peoria, IL, United States of America

Ivan R Lamport