Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Tsuda Industries Co., Ltd.

Yutaka Inuzuka

Takeshi Kondo

Michiyuki Murakami

George Suzuki

Hiroaki Tanaka

Nobuo Kobayashi

Takeo Kondo

Hiroyuki Mochizuki

Akiyoshi Hirai

Ichiji Yamada

Shigeo Aiba

Setsuo Nishi

Tyo Tanahashi

Takahiko Watanabe

Hideki Takeo

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

An axle beam for the rear wheel suspension of a front-engine front-wheel drive vehicle is disclosed. An axle beam body extends in the transverse direction of the vehicle with both ends thereof attached to wheel hubs, and trailing arms and springs connect the axle beam body to the vehicle body in the vicinity of the wheel hubs. An axle body protecting member having an inclined outer peripheral surface which inclines below the front side wall and extending in the transverse direction of the vehicle is attached to the front side wall of the axle beam body. The protecting member may be attached to the axle beam body through spacers, an elastic member or a universal joint.

Axle beam including a protecting member

An upper support for a suspension of a vehicle includes load bearing rubber members which are all used in a compression direction. The support includes an elastic member including first, second and third portions which are used in a compression direction. The upper support is improved in durability, ease in obtaining desired load-deformation characteristics in design, and ease in obtaining soft dynamic vibrational characteristics against bound and rebound loads.

Upper support for a suspension of a vehicle

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

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

A suspension ball joint mounting mechanism in which a steering knuckle arranged swivelably in the steering operation is forked at its end by a slit. A stud portion of a ball joint stud assembly is passed through the forked portion of the steering knuckle and fastened in position by bolting, the ball portion of the ball joint stud assembly being pivotally supported to a support seat of a suspension arm so that said both portions are able to make a relative movement to each other. A dust cover is provided to sheath the support seat and steering knuckle. A plate washer is disposed between the entire area of the edge ring face of the lip portion of the dust cover and the corresponding face of the steering knuckle to allow smooth relative sliding movements thereof. Thus, the sealing performance of the joint mechanism is improved, while ensuring wear resistance thereof.

Suspension ball joint mounting mechanism

A bush assembly for vibration control, particularly adapted for use in supporting a suspension arm of an automobile suspension system, which includes an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder which is smaller in length than the inner cylinder. The outer cylinder coaxially encircles the inner cylinder and is radially spaced therefrom to define a cylindrical clearance space encircling the inner cylinder. A generally cylindrical impact absorbing member of elastic material is secured in the cylindrical space and has at least a pair of diametrically opposite recesses facing the inner peripheral surface of the outer cylinder. Each of the recesses has an arcuate transverse cross section and extends along the length of the outer cylinder. The impact absorbing member has a portion of rectangular longitudinal cross section interposed between each of its recesses and the inner cylinder and having a length substantially equal to that of the outer cylinder. The impact absorbing member has a pair of radially outwardly tapered portions of trapezoidal longitudinal cross section interposed circumferentially between the recesses, and having an inner axial length substantially equal to the length of the inner cylinder and an outer axial length smaller than the length of the outer cylinder.

Growing community of inventors

Nishio, Japan

Yutaka Inuzuka