Ford Motor Company Limited

Jonathan D Stinson

William H Clarke

John V Lopez

Lawrence P McDonagh

A strut assembly for use in an automotive suspension of a vehicle including a wheel carrier and a chassis includes an outer housing attached to the wheel carrier, a pressure tube disposed within the outer housing, a piston slidably carried within the pressure tube and disposed at the lower end of a piston rod. The outer housing of the strut assembly moves axially relative to the pressure tube under imposition of an axial load upon the strut. The strut assembly can further overcome the static friction forces contained within the strut assembly at a much lower axial input force than in conventional strut designs.

Friction compensating automotive suspension strut

A friction reducing automotive suspension stabilizer bar includes a combination torsional and bending reaction segment running generally transversely across the vehicle and pivotally mounted to the chassis of the vehicle and left and right crank arms with each having a first end attached to the torsional and bending reaction segment and a second end adapted to be attached to a telescoping strut. Bearing means are provided for attaching each of the second ends of the stabilizer bar to the inboard side of a telescoping strut such that the torsional and bending reaction segment of the stabilizer bar will react to both torsional loading resulting from jounce and rebound movement of the suspension as well as to bending loads resulting from transversely directed forces imposed upon the second ends of the crank arms by the telescoping struts.

Friction reducing automotive suspension stabilizer bar

A dual action piston assembly 10 includes a piston 12 with compression passageways 18 and rebound passageways 20 with each set of passageways covered by a valve disc 22 and 24 respectively. Each valve disc is seated on a land by a spring biased valve seat 26 and 28 respectively. The rebound valve seat 28 has a debossed section 34 which is spaced away from the valve disc 24 to form a clearance 36 such that when fluid pressure within rebound passageway 20 presses against valve disc 24, the valve disc portion under the debossed section 34 flexes to modulate fluid flow before the valve seat 28 lifts from a higher pressure within the rebound passageway against a spring 42 to allow for smooth modulation of hydraulic fluid passing therethrough.

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Plymouth, MI, United States of America

Jonathan D Stinson