JPH0319443Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a front suspension of a front wheel drive vehicle.

In a front-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a front suspension of the wisdombone type, there is extremely little free space around the drive shaft because the tie rod is disposed along the vicinity of the front wheel drive shaft. For this reason, even if chain transmission was attempted to be used as a transmission means for transmitting the engine output to the drive shaft, the tie rods would get in the way, making it very difficult to attach the sprocket to the drive shaft, arrange the chain cover, etc. . Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, a front suspension has been proposed in which a tie rod 1 is extended obliquely upward to allow multiple attachments of a sprocket 3 to a drive shaft 2 and a chain cover 4. However, with such a suspension structure, the angle difference α between the tie rod 1 and the upper arm 5 becomes large, and the toe-in change due to the vertical movement of the front wheel 6 becomes large, resulting in poor steering stability.

Further, in a steering device, a structure in which the knuckle arm is extended upward and further extended diagonally upward is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 51-76328. However, even in this structure, the extension of the Natsukuru arm and the Atsupa arm intersect,
are not placed parallel to each other. Therefore, in terms of handling stability, it had the same drawbacks as the above-mentioned known example.

The present invention was devised in view of these circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a front suspension for a front wheel drive vehicle that can drive the front wheel drive shaft by chain transmission without impairing steering stability. The gist of this is to install a sprocket on the above-mentioned drive shaft, and to attach the sprocket to the lower part of the steering shaft in a wishbone type front suspension that suspends and supports the front wheels using an upper arm and a lower arm. and extend the tip of the knuckle arm above the upper arm, and connect one end of the tie rod to the tip of the knuckle arm,
and the other end is connected to the arm plate of the steering shaft, and the tie rod is arranged so as to be substantially parallel to the upper arm when viewed from the rear of the vehicle in the horizontal direction, and the tie rod and the upper arm form a parallel quadruple link. The front suspension of a front-wheel drive vehicle is characterized by a mechanism similar to that of the front suspension of a front-wheel drive vehicle.

An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below based on FIGS. 2 and 3. The front suspension according to the present invention is a front suspension of the wisdombone type as shown in FIGS. movably supported. Specifically, the upper arm 5 and the lower arm 8 are V-shaped as shown in FIG.
is supported rotatably in the vertical direction by a chassis (not shown). Further, a pair of upper and lower brackets 9, 10 are fixed to the axle bearing 7, and the pair of brackets 9, 10 connect to a pair of ball joints 11, 1.
2 to the tips 5b, 8b of the arms 5, 8.
is connected to. Note that a coil spring (not shown) is attached to the lower arm 8.

A front end 13a of a knuckle arm 13 is also fixed to the axle bearing 7, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The rear end 13b of the knuckle arm 13 is bent upward and rearward and extends to a position slightly above the upper arm 5. One end of a tie rod 14 is connected to this rear end portion 13b via a ball joint 15, and this tie rod 14 is arranged so as to be substantially parallel to the upper arm 5 when viewed from the rear of the vehicle in the horizontal direction. There is.
That is, when the tie rod 14 and the upper arm 5 are projected on a plane perpendicular to the direction of travel of the vehicle,
They are arranged approximately parallel to each other on this projection plane. The other end of the tie rod 14 is connected to an arm plate 18 fixed to the lower end of the steering shaft 17 via a ball joint 15.

The front wheel drive shaft 2 has a pair of constant velocity joints 19,
20 and the swing shaft 21 to the front wheel axle 2.
It is connected to 2. A sprocket 3 is attached to the drive shaft 2, and engine output (not shown) is transmitted to the drive shaft 2 via a chain 23 and the sprocket 3. Note that the chain 23 is covered by a chain cover 4.

The front suspension is constructed as described above, and when the road surface is uneven, the arms 5 and 8 swing vertically to absorb shock. On this occasion,
Since the tie rod 14 is disposed substantially parallel to the upper arm 5, even if the axle bearing 7 moves up and down, the rotation angle of the axle bearing 7 in the left-right direction is very small. That is, if the tie rod 1 and the upper arm 5 have a large angle difference α as shown in FIG. direction, and the toe-in change becomes large. In contrast, in the present invention, the tie rod 14 and upper arm 5 constitute a mechanism similar to a parallel quadruple link, so even if the wheel bearing 7 moves up and down, the wheel bearing rotates in the left-right direction. The angle is relatively small. Therefore, the toe-in change is small and the steering stability is not impaired.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and can be modified in various ways.

According to the present invention, the sprocket is placed below the steering shaft and the front wheels are driven by this sprocket, so the power transmission mechanism is simplified and the weight and cost of the vehicle can be reduced. Not only is this possible, but the tie rod and the upper arm form a mechanism similar to a four-parallel link, so it is much better than the suspension structure shown in Figure 1 or the structure disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 51-76328. Even if the front wheels move up and down, the change in toe-in is extremely small, and steering stability is not compromised.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a rear view of the front suspension of a conventionally proposed front-wheel drive vehicle;
The figure is a rear view of the front suspension according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a left side view of FIG. 2. 2...Drive shaft, 5...Upper arm, 6...Front wheel, 8...Lower arm, 13...Knuckle arm, 14...Tie rod.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Front wheel 6 is connected by Atsupa arm 5 and lower arm 8.
In a wisdombone type front suspension that suspends and supports the front wheel, a sprocket 3 is attached to the drive shaft 2 of the front wheel 6, and the sprocket 3 is placed below the steering shaft 17, and the tip of the knuckle arm 13 is attached to the upper arm 5. Extending upward, one end of a tie rod 14 is connected to the tip of the knuckle arm 13, and the other end is connected to the arm plate 18 of the steering shaft 17. 5. A front suspension for a front wheel drive automobile, characterized in that the tie rod 14 and the upper arm 5 constitute a mechanism similar to a parallel quadruple link.