Lear Donnelly Overhead Systems, L.l.c.

Paul M Andary

Mark R Litke

John Rickfelder

An overhead console for a vehicle or the like includes a housing defining a transmitter storage compartment for a garage door opener and an opening for permitting access to the storage compartment. A door is pivotally mounted to the housing for movement between a closed position for covering the opening and an open position for exposing the interior of the compartment through the lower opening. A hinge assembly for pivotally mounting the door to the housing includes a pair of spaced cams integrally molded to the door and a pair of spaced spring arms integrally molded to the housing. The spring arms are engageable with the cams as the door moves toward the open position from the closed position to arrest the movement of the door at an intermediate position between the closed and open positions. The spring arms are engageable and deflectable by the cam to provide frictional resistance to movement of the door only from the intermediate position to the open position. The spring arm includes a first section for contacting the cam at the intermediate position and a second section connected to the first section for contacting cam at the open position for resisting movement of the door toward the closed position. A manually operable actuating member is mounted to the door for movement with respect thereto, and includes a plurality of sockets formed therein. A plurality of actuator pegs are provided, with each peg having a first end that is adapted for positioning in one of the sockets and a second end adapted for receiving the first end of another peg. With this arrangement, one of the actuator pegs can be inserted in one of the sockets that corresponds to a position of the transmitter switch within the compartment. The height of the actuator peg can be adjusted to contact the actuator switch by stacking further actuator pegs thereon until the combined height of the actuator pegs is equal to the distance between the actuating member and the transmitter switch, such that movement of the actuating member activates the transmitter.

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Holland, MI, United States of America

Paul M Andary