Select detent mechanism of an automotive manual transmission

Abstract

In an automotive manual transmission including a common fork shaft on and along which shift forks are slidable, a control rod rotatable about and slidable along the axis thereof which is normal to the axis of the fork shaft, a pivoting pin extending normal to both the axes of the common fork shaft and the control rod, a supporting member removably connected to the transmission housing and mounting therein the pivoting pin, pivoting levers pivotally supported by the pivoting pin and jointly engaged at their one ends with the corresponding shift forks to induce sliding movements of the shift forks in response to rotational movements thereof, a selecting head member secured to the control rod to be movable therewith, the head member being brought into engagement with the other end of the selected one of the pivoting levers upon rotation of the control rod into an angular position, and an interlock plate rotatably mounted on the control rod to ensure that only the selected pivoting lever is rotatable at any given time, there is provided an improved select detent mechanism which comprises a plate secured to the supporting member and having a notched surface formed thereon and a spring-biased detent ball device mounted to the interlock plate, the arrangement being such that the detent ball is biased toward the notched surface of the plate to engage with the same.