Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Shigeo Aiba

Nobuo Kobayashi

Hiroyoshi Kako

Takahiro Iwase

Yutaka Inuzuka

Hiroyuki Mochizuki

Shigetoshi Miyoshi

Iwao Tanimoto

Takeshi Onogi

Setsuo Nishi

Taisuke Nakamura

Tsutomu Sugiura

The synthetic resin rack guide to be housed in a gear box of a rack and pinion type steering device for a vehicle. The rack guide includes a generally semi-cylindrical head, an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder. The generally semi-cylindrical head includes a semi-cylindrical concave surface which slidably contacts a back surface of a rack bar. The outer cylinder is separated from the inner cylinder by a circumferentially extending space and is divided into a plurality of sections in the circumferential direction by a plurality of slits which extend in parallel with an axis of the rack guide. Due to the provision of the slits, the outer cylinder can shrink radially inward when it is inserted into a rack housing with no clearance between them and when an interference between them is increased in proportion to an increase in ambient temperature. Thus, a locking of the rack guide with the rack housing is prevented and a smooth sliding is obtained even with the increase in ambient temperature.

Rack guide of synthetic resin for a rack and pinion type steering device

A synthetic resin rack guide in a rack-and-pinion type steering gear is provided with a projection formed on an outer peripheral surface at an end portion which is in contact with a rack bar. The projection is designed in such a manner that a diameter thereof after shrinkage due to annealing is equal to or slightly larger than an inner diameter of a guide hole for receiving the rack guide. With this arrangement, an abnormal noise created between rack teeth and a pinion may be prevented.

Rack guide in rack-and-pinion type steering gear

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.

Rack-and-pinion type steering gear

Growing community of inventors

Aichi, Japan

Shigeo Aiba