GB756026A - Improvements in and relating to spring suspension for motor vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

756,026. Spring suspensions; adjusting body height; preventing lateral canting. MOTOR RESEARCH CORPORATION. May 9, 1952, No. 11842/52. Class 108 (2). A vehicle structure includes a frame and two longitudinally-spaced front and rear wheels at a side of the frame, main spring means extending longitudinally of the frame for yieldingly supporting the frame on the wheels, lever means connected to the spring means and to at least one of the wheels and responsive to vertical displacement thereof to deflect the spring means, spring means connected to at least one of the wheels, and means adapted to act on the lastnamed spring means and operative for varying the spring resistance at one end of the frame relative to the opposite end of the frame thereby to levelize the frame and compensate for relative changes in elevation of opposte ends of the frame. In the arrangement according to Fig. 1, in which front steerable wheels 25 are connected to a cross-member 21 of a vehicle frame by means of upper and lower wishbone links 27, 28, the inner end of each upper link 27 carries a tubular member 30 in which is secured one end of a forwardly-extending torsion bar 32, the other end of which is secured in a socket adjustable angularly in a frame cross-member 24. The inner end of each lower link 28 is provided with a tubular member 36 in which is secured one end of a rearwardly-extending main torsion bar spring 39. Rear wheels 26 are each carried by upper and lower links 43, 44 and by a torque arm 57 pivotally connected to a frame cross-member 23. The link 43 which is formed as a bell-crank lever, is pivotally connected, through a bracket to a frame member 22 and is also pivotally connected through a tension link 48, to a lever arm 50 carried by a tubular member 51, which is journalled in the frame member 22 and in which is secured the other end of the torsion bar 39. An additional torsion bar 61 at each side of the vehicle, is secured at its rear end in the member 51 and at its front end, is anchored on a tubular member 62 which is journalled in brackets 63 on a frame member 20. A worm gear on the member 62 meshes with a worm carried by a shaft 66, which is common to the bars 61 on opposite sides of the vehicle and which is rotatable by a reversible electric motor 69. The motor is automatically actuated in response to changes in static load on the rear of the vehicle by a switch mechanism (not shown), the arrangement being such that the motor is not influenced by temporary changes in load or by vertical motion of the rear wheels during travel of the vehicle. The torsion-bars 39 may be supported in rubber bushings 71 on a frame member 73. In a modification (Figs. 8 and 9, not shown), the torsion-bars 32 are replaced by shorter bars housed in torsion-tubes, with which the bars co-operate. In each of the foregoing arrangements the torsion-bars 32 may be extended rearwardly of the cross-member 21 and connected together by a shaft actuated in a manner similar to that of the shaft 66 for bars 61 above. In another arrangement (Figs. 10 and 11, not shown), independent torsion-bar main springing is provided for each wheel, and two pairs of additional torsion-bars extend rearwardly from the front wheels and forwardly from the rear wheels respectively, the bars of each pair being connected together by a shaft actuated in a manner similar to that of the shaft 66 for the bars 61 above. In modifications of the rear-wheel suspension of the Fig. 1 arrangement, Figs. 14-19 (not shown), the links 48 are dispensed with, the link 43 being formed with an extension which is slidably or resiliently connected to a lever arm extending upwardly at approximately 45 degrees from the member 51. Specifications 711,938 and 715,426 are referred to.