GB578310A - Improvements in motor vehicles with two power units - Google Patents

Abstract

578,310. Controlling change-speed gearing. MARMON-HERRINGTON CO., Inc. June 16, 1943, No. 9701. Convention date, Sept. 14, 1942. [Class 80 (ii)] [Also in Group XXXI] A motor vehicle comprises a chassis frame 55, Figs. 1 & 2, two engines 10, 11 mounted thereon and oscillatory in known manner about parallel axes, two gearboxes 10<1>, 11<1> one fixed to each engine so as to oscillate therewith, two levers 45, 48 pivoted on the gear - boxes and connected together by a link 49, each lever operating a reciprocatory selector rod 12 on the corresponding geax-box, a master control gear lever L connected to the lever 45, and snubbing or damping means 61, 58 connecting the two gear-boxes so that the lateral oscillations of one will be transmitted to the other, and the gear selector rods 12 will not be relatively affected by the oscillations. In the construction shown, the two gear-boxes are connected by links 61 to a bracket 58 mounted on the central longitudinal frame member 55 by means of a rubber pad 57. The gear lever L is mounted so that when rocked from side to side it shifts the gear selector rods 12 in unison, and when rocked fore-and-aft it completes electric circuits to put the selected gears in operation. As shown diagrammatically in Fig. 6, there are two batteries 77, 78 one for each engine, and a selector switch 81 is provided whereby either battery can be connected to a bus bar 86 for head lights &c. and through a line 83 to a master switch M for the engines and gear boxes. By means of the switch M either engine and gear-box can be used separately, and contacts 94, 940 can be connected by switch elements 98, 980 on the gear lever shaft to energise gear shift means 99, 99' in known manner. The gear lever L is mounted so at to rock in two perpendicular planes about trunnions 21, Figs. 4 & 5, and a shaft 24, and comprises a hand portion 30 fixed to two bars 27 spaced apart to receive a disc 22 fixed to the trunnions. The shaft and trunnions are mounted to rotate in a casing 20, and the bars 27 are formed with blocks 28, 29 which bear on the circumference of the disc 22 so that the lever can rock about on the axis of the disc. The shaft 24 passes freely through an aperture 23 in the centre of the disc, and is formed with ribs or ridges 26 engaged by corresponding surfaces projecting inwards from one of the bars 27 into the aperture of the disc, so that as the hand lever L is rocked about the axis of the disc and shaft 24, the shaft is rocked by the lever, and switch elements 98 on the shaft complete the appropriate circuits for whatever gear is selected. When the lever L is rocked in a plane containing the shaft 24, the trunnions 21 are rocked and shift the gear selector rods 12 through an arm on one of the trunnions, a link 44, Fig. 1, and the levers 45, 48.