Nissan Motor Company Limited

Yoshitaka Iijima

Takaaki Uno

Hiroshi Noguchi

Masanori Abe

In order to enable the appropriate amount of understeer to be produced in a suspension wherein the rear wheel is steered to produce a toe-in effect by a lateral rod/knuckle arm arrangement, a device which in some embodiments is hydraulically controlled and in others is mechanical, permits distortion of the elastomeric bushes which form part of the suspension unit to produce a relatively large amount of understeer at high speeds and restricts the distortion at lower speeds to reduce the amount of understeer to a level suitable for that speed.

Rear independent suspension for automotive vehicle

An automotive suspension system includes a height control system for controlling vehicle height and a damping force adjusting system for adjusting damping force produced by a shock absorber. The height control system and the damping force adjusting system are coordinated such that the damping force is decreased when the height control system shifts the vehicle body upwards, and the damping force is increased when the height control system shifts the vehicle body downwards. Furthermore, the height control system is responsive to the height of the vehicle body and the vehicle speed to shift the vehicle body up and down so that the vehicle body is held to within a predetermined range of height.

Automotive suspension system with vehicle height control

A differential gear housing is connected to the vehicle body through at least one first elastic member which deforms in shear mode when the housing vibrates up or down or back and forth to the vehicle body and additionally through at least one second elastic member which deforms in both shear and compression modes when the housing vibrates up and down and in only shear mode when the housing vibrates back and forth. Since the deformation mode of the second elastic member changes from shear mode to compression mode gradually with increasing displacement of the member, it is possible to obtain a desirable elastic modulus such that the elastic members are soft when vibrations are small but hard when vibrations are strong, without any points of discontinuity.

Differential gear housing supporting apparatus

A supporting structure for a steering apparatus of the rack and pinion type with a rack axle supporting member. The supporting member is supported on a vehicle body by a clamping member through mounting insulators. This insulator comprises a first elastic means to receive smaller input forces by means of shearing stress and a second elastic means to receive larger input forces by means of compressive stress.

Supporting structure for a steering apparatus of the rack and pinion type

An axle having a shallow 'U' shape is oriented beneath the vehicle so that side and bottom sections of the U-shape extend either forward or are angled slightly downward and connected to the chassis through trailing links of different lengths whereby the axle rotates during vertical movement of the road wheels. The axle is disposed in the vehicle so that as the axle moves vertically, the ends of the axle pivot up on either side of a tire housing while the center or inboard portion moves through a smaller distance into a clearance between the tire housing and a fuel tank.

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Atsugi, Japan

Yoshitaka Iijima