GB626487A - Improvements in or relating to power-transmission systems of vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

626,487. Bearing supports. EVERNDEN, H. I. F., and HARDY, F. J. Sept. 2, 1946, No. 26398. [Class 12 (i)] In a motor vehicle transmission system, as described in Specification 597,137, in which the transmission shaft is in two parts connected by a universal joint, the shaft being supported adjacent said joint by a bearing mounted on the chassis or body by resilient means, providing a greater restraint to vertical movement than horizontal movement of the bearing, the resilient means comprise two cantilever springs located one on each side of a vertical plane through the bearing axis, and each secured to the chassis or body by one end, their other ends being connected to the bearing by two arms which project horizontally from either side of the bearing and which are rigidly secured to the latter at points lying in a horizontal plane substantially removed from that containing the shaft axis. The mounting allows the bearing to move in a plane normal to the shaft. The bearing housing 32 has rigidly secured to it two arms 33 projecting horizontally one on either side of the bearing and situated below the axis of the shaft 24. The outer end of each arm 33 is secured to one end of a rubber or like block 35, the other end of which is secured to a bracket 37 attached to the chassis 38, so that each block 35 extends horizontally from the bracket, is parallel to the bearing axis, and acts as a cantilever spring. The housing 32 is thus resiliently supported by the two blocks 35 so that it can move in any direction in a vertical plane normal to the axis of the bearing under the resilient restraint of the rubber in shear. A second pair of arms 39 projects from the housing 32 in the same horizontal plane as the arms 33, each arm 39 having at its free end a friction disc 40 movable over a friction plate formed by or provided on the bracket 37. The arms 33, 39 on each side of the housing are initially set towards one another, and are sprung apart to apply an endwise load on the blocks 35 when the mounting is assembled, so that the discs 40 are held resiliently against the friction plates to damp oscillations. Each block may be of such section in a vertical plane that it has greater stiffness in a vertical plane than in a horizontal one.