GB391916A - Improvements in or relating to spring suspension systems for motor road vehicles andthe like - Google Patents

Abstract

391,916. Spring suspensions. BURNEY, SIR C. D., 8, Broadway, Westminster. Jan. 25, 1932, No. 2255. [Class 108 (ii).] In a motor road vehicle having its engine in the vicinity of the back axle the chassis and body are supported at the rear of the vehicle by a member extending transversely across the vehicle behind the passenger space and supported at its ends by the rear wheel axle boxes or housings, the chassis being suspended from said transverse member which is elevated above the centre of gravity of the sprung mass to such a height as to define a longitudinal rolling axis for the body passing above said centre of gravity. Fig. 1 shows a car having a body 1 supported on front steering wheels 2 and rear driving wheels 3 and having a tail-piece 4 in which is mounted the driving unit. The latter comprises a differential lying between the wheels 3 and connected therewith by articulated half-axles 6 each comprising two universal joints 7, 8 and a splined sliding joint 9, Fig. 4. The rear wheel axle bearings are carried in housings 10, Fig. 1, having upwardly extending arms 11 fixed to a rigid transverse bar 12, the whole forming a rigid arched axletree. Housings 10 are located by radius rods 10a. Leaf springs 15 are clamped centrally to the ends of bar 12. The ends of springs 15 are universally jointed to forward pedestals 17a extending from the sides of frame 18 and to links 38 pin-jointed to rear pedestals 17b, respectively. Frame 18 is narrowed at its front end, Fig. 3, and carries a journal 19 rotatable in a bearing member 20 mounted upon a transverse member 21. Brackets 25 carrying king pins 26 of the wheels 2 are connected to member 21 by pin-jointed links 22 and by a laminated leaf spring 27. Spring 27 is pinjointed at its ends to downwardly extending arms of brackets 25. In a modified form of rear springing, Fig. 4, the rigid bar 12 is replaced by a spring 28 extending across the body 1 at a level above the centre of gravity and shackled at its ends either to rigid posts up standing from axle-boxes 10 or to spring arms as shown which are rotatable on the axle-boxes 10. Axle-boxes 10 are located by forwardly extending torque arms rotatably mounted at their front ends on a transverse frame bar.