Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Tsuda Industries Co., Ltd.

Michiyuki Murakami

Takeshi Kondo

George Suzuki

Yutaka Inuzuka

Ichiji Yamada

Akiyoshi Hirai

Isao Ichihara

Takahiko Watanabe

Ryou Yanahashi

Yutake Inuzuka

Tyo Tanahashi

An apparatus is provided for supporting a shift lever for a transmission the shift lever including a ball-like portion which is on the shift lever and has spherical surfaces of a fixed curvature at least on a part of the lower and upper sides. A receiving surface has a concave spherical surface of nearly the same curvature as the lower spherical surface of the ball-like portion and is in contact with the lower spherical surface, and a retaining surface has a concave spherical surface in surface contact with the upper spherical surface of the ball-like portion and holds the ball-like portion between the concave spherical surface and the receiving surface. A retaining member is installed from above to cover the ball-like portion, and an elastic displacement section is projectingly formed on the lower side of the retaining member to enclose the upper part of the ball-like portion and is elastically deformable in the radial direction of the ball-like portion. The retaining surface is formed on a part of the elastic displacement section which faces the ball-like portion. The ball-like portion is held in between the receiving surface and the retaining surface with the elastic force of the elastic displacement section, and a frictional force based on the elastic force acts as the shift-lever operating load.

Apparatus for supporting shift lever for transmission

A shift lever supporting apparatus for a transmission, has an integral structure comprising a cylindrical shift lever mounting portion for receiving a ball portion of a shift lever, a pyramidal retainer portion contiguously provided below the shift lever mounting portion, a plate portion contiguously provided below the retainer portion, and a bearing portion for mounting a select bell-crank, the bearing portion being contiguously provided on the retainer portion and in close proximity to the shift lever mounting portion. The shift lever mounting portion is provided with a seat surface for supporting the ball portion of the shift lever, and a U-shaped notch which allows insertion of a select lever extending from the ball portion. The ball portion of the shift lever is inserted into the shift lever mounting portion from the upper side and this ball portion is pressed against and thereby retained on the seat surface by the use of a cap.

A shift lever assembly operatively linked with a transmission, for manually operating the transmission, including a shift lever, a support, and a pair of stationary retainer plates. The shift lever has a handle portion at which the shift lever is manipulated, and a spherical coupling portion at which the shift lever is universally supported. The support consists of two halves in the form of a pair of support sheets which have respective adjoining surfaces substantially parallel to a plane in which the shift lever extends. The support sheets cooperate with each other to provide a spherical support portion which engages the spherical coupling portion of the shift lever for universally supporting the shift lever. Each support sheet has an outer surface opposite to the corresponding adjoining surface. The stationary retainer plates are disposed in spaced-part relation with each other on opposite sides of the support, so as to hold the pair of support sheets at their outer surfaces. The assembly may further include a plurality of bolts which penetrate through the thickness of the support sheets and the retainer plates, for fastening the pair of support sheets to each other via the retainer plates.

Transmission shift lever assembly

Growing community of inventors

Toyoake, Japan

Michiyuki Murakami