Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Iwao Tanimoto

Nobuo Kobayashi

Atsushi Watanabe

Hiroaki Shinto

Hiroyoshi Kako

Shigeo Aiba

A rack-and-pinion type steering gear for automotive vehicles including a columnar rack guide made of resin having a small coefficient of friction. An outer diameter of the rack guide in the direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of a rack bar is greater than an inner diameter of a rack guide hole for insertion of the rack guide in such a manner that the transverse cross-section of the rack guide is elliptical. With this arrangement, vibration of the rack guide in the rack guide hole due to an external force dynamically acting on the rack bar, thereby preventing generation of noise from the rack guide hole.

Rack-and-pinion type steering gear for automotive vehicles

Disclosed is an improvement in a rack-and-pinion type steering gear, wherein a rack bar abutting portion is so formed as to project from the inner surface of the insert hole at the circumference of the upper opening of the rack guide hole, and the rack guide is made of a low-rigid material such as synthetic resin. There is defined a clearance between the rack guide abutting portion and the back of the rack bar, which clearance is larger than the clearance between the rack guide and the set bolt, but smaller than the elastic deformation limit of the rack guide.

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Toyota, Japan

Iwao Tanimoto