JPH06241302A - Tiltable shift operation lever for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform tilting operation so easily as just puling up an operation lever against tensile energizing force, by governing the operation lever consisting of one shaft body to stay at the lowest position all the time by the tensile energizing force of a spring member and fitting it in an operation lever holding part. CONSTITUTION:The main part of a shift operation lever 20 comprises a hinge bracket 22 having a shift lever piece 21 for shifting, an operation lever holding part 23 mounted thereon, and an operation lever 24 held therein. And the operation lever 24 always makes the bottom part of its shaft body part 24a to penetrate into the cylindrical body part 23a of the operation lever holding part 23 and an operation lever penetration hole 26 in the hinge bracket upper wall part 22b by a prescribed depth by means of tensile energizing force of a helical spring 30 so as to hold the lever unable to tilt. Therefore when the operation lever 24 is pulled up against tensile energizing force of the helical spring 30 by grasping an operation knob 31, the shaft body part 24a is projected upward from the cylindrical body part 22a so as to be positioned between both support pieces 22a and smoothly tilts the operation lever 24 forward.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a retractable speed change lever for a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In trucks, commercial vehicles, recreational vehicle vehicles, and the like, it is generally necessary to move from the driver seat side to the passenger seat side and from the passenger seat side to the driver seat side.

For this reason, conventionally, the gear shift operation lever of this type of vehicle has a retractable structure that can be tilted to the front side of the vehicle body as required, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 3-12049. Has been adopted.

9 and 10 show the structure of a conventional folding type shift operation lever for a vehicle.

That is, in these drawings, first, reference numeral 10 is a reversible vehicle gear shift operating lever, and the gear shift operating lever 10 is directly or indirectly a shift lever piece (not shown).
A lower lever 1 provided with a lower lever 1, an upper knob 3 on an operation knob side rotatably connected to an upper portion of the lower lever 1 via a support shaft 2, and an outer periphery of the upper lever 3 slidably in an axial direction. It is configured by including the fitted locking sleeve 4. Then, as shown in FIG. 9 for example, when the lower lever 1 and the upper lever 3 are both upright, the locking sleeve 4 is fitted over the connecting portion 5 of the levers 1 and 3 and locked, so that the lever 1 is locked. , 3 are fixed to one straight shaft body so that the shift operation can be performed. On the other hand, the locking sleeve 4 is pulled upward from the state shown in FIG. 9 so that the connecting portion 5 of the levers 1, 3 is locked. When the fitting state is released, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, the support shaft 2 of the connecting portion can be tilted forward of the vehicle body as a fulcrum.

[0006]

However, in this configuration, when the operation lever is tilted from the state of FIG. 9 to the state of FIG. 10, the lock sleeve 4 is pulled up and the upper lever 3 itself is tilted. In the locked state of FIG. 9, since the locking sleeve 4 is relatively downward, there is a problem that it is difficult to tilt the locking sleeve 4 while holding it. On the other hand, it is inconvenient to lift the locking sleeve 4 once and then re-grip the upper lever 3 to perform the tilting operation. Further, in order to ensure the locked state in the locked state of FIG. 9, the connecting portion 5 of the lower lever 1 and the upper lever 3 is formed in a mutually tapered surface, and the locking sleeve 4 is correspondingly formed. The inner peripheral surface 6 is also made into a tapered surface, and the main body 4a of the locking sleeve 4 is made of a resin material for the purpose of obtaining a sufficient tightening force at the tapered surface 6, and a metal reinforcing cylinder 4b is provided on the outer periphery thereof. Since the lock is performed as tightly as possible by mating or the like, depending on the driver, there is a possibility that the lock will be too strong.In such a case, it may take time to release the lock. In some cases, tilting operation becomes difficult.

Further, in the structure of the conventional example, in addition to the fact that the shaft body forming the operating lever is divided into two parts, the upper and lower parts,
Since many parts have to be coaxially fitted and assembled together, the cost of the parts increases and the assembly work itself becomes complicated.

[0008]

The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above problems, and is constructed as follows.

[0009] That is, the vehicle foldable gear shift operating lever of the present invention comprises an inverted U-shaped rotatable hinge bracket for actuating the shift lever, and a U-shaped groove formed in an upper portion of the hinge bracket. A tubular operating lever holding portion, an operating lever whose lower end is fitted and supported so as to be relatively slidable and rotatable relative to the operating lever holding portion via a support shaft, and the operating lever And a spring member that pulls and urges the hinge bracket in the descending direction.

[0010]

Therefore, in this structure, the operating lever itself is 1
Is formed by a shaft body of a book, and in a normal state, the operation lever composed of the shaft body is always regulated to the lowest position by the tension urging action of the spring member, and the lower part of the shaft body is a cylinder. Since it is fitted in the body-shaped operation lever holding portion, the locked state in which it cannot be tilted and the shift operation is possible is reliably maintained.

On the other hand, when the operation lever is pulled upward against the tensile biasing force of the spring member, the lower portion of the shaft body of the operation lever projects upward from the cylindrical holding portion and the operation lever holding portion It comes out to the above-mentioned upper U-shaped groove and rotates through the U-shaped groove without any trouble, so that the entire operation lever can be smoothly tilted to the front side of the vehicle body.

[0012]

As a result, according to the vehicle shift operating lever of the present invention, the operating lever itself consisting of only one shaft can be tilted freely if it is lifted upward against the tensile pressure of the spring member. Since it is possible to operate by grasping anywhere in the gear shift operation lever, it is possible to operate by holding near the upper operation knob, and the tilting operation becomes very easy.

In addition, in this case, the operation of lifting the operation lever is sufficient as long as there is always a pulling force that resists the tension biasing force of the spring member at a constant pressure. There can be no case where leaning becomes difficult.

Further, as described above, the operating lever itself requires only one shaft body, and the shaft body of the operating lever is divided into the upper and lower parts as in the prior art, and a lock having a double structure is provided over the whole. There is no need to fit a sleeve for use at all, and it is possible to reduce the number of parts and the number of assembling steps, which leads to cost reduction.

[0015]

【Example】

(1) First Embodiment FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the structure and operation of a retractable gear shift operation lever for a vehicle according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

That is, in FIG. 1, first, reference numeral 20 is the same inclinable gear shift operating lever, and the gear shift operating lever 20 is
The hinge bracket 22 is provided with a shift lever piece 21 for shifting, an operation lever holding portion 23 provided on the upper portion of the hinge bracket 22, and an operation lever 24 held by the operation lever holding portion 23. It is configured.

The hinge bracket 22 has an inverted U-shaped cross section when viewed from the front side, and its lower two pieces 22a, 22a are rotatably attached to the vehicle body side via a support shaft portion 25. The shift lever piece 21 is integrally provided on one side of the lower pieces 22a, 22a.

The operating lever holding portion 23 is a cylinder extending upward by a predetermined height in a state of surrounding an operating lever through hole 26 formed in the center of the horizontal upper wall portion 22a of the hinge bracket 22. Operation lever support piece 2 formed by extending the body portion 23a and a part of both the left and right sides of the cylindrical body portion 23a upward
3b and 23b, the lower end of the shaft body portion 24a of the operation lever 24 is vertically slidably inserted into the cylindrical body portion 23a, and the operation lever support pieces 23b and 23b.
The operation lever 24 is supported by the support pin 27.

Further, as shown in detail in FIG. 2, the operating lever 24 has an elongated hole 28 of a predetermined length extending in the axial direction in a supporting portion at the lower end of the shaft body portion 24a by the supporting pin 27. The support pin 27 is formed in the elongated hole 28 so that the support pin 27 is loosely supported by the elongated hole 28 so that the support pin 27 can be vertically moved by a predetermined stroke. The stroke (length of the long hole 28) is at the lowest position and the operation lever 2
While the lower end of the operation lever 4 is inserted into the operation lever insertion hole 26 on the side of the hinge bracket 22, the lower end of the operation lever 4 is at the highest position and the upper support pieces 23a, 23a of the operation lever holding part 23 are provided.
The size is set so as to project into the U-shaped groove portion between them. A coil spring locking shaft 29 protruding parallel to the support pin 27 is provided at a predetermined height above the upper end of the elongated hole 28 of the shaft body 24a.
A coil spring 30 having a predetermined tension pressure is provided between the common side end portion of the support pin 27 and the end portion of the support pin 27. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, the lower end of the shaft body portion 24a of the operation lever 24 is constantly urged by the tension urging force of the coil spring 30, and the cylindrical body portion 23a of the operation lever holding portion 23 and the hinge bracket upper wall portion 22a. The operation lever insertion hole 26 is inserted into the operation lever insertion hole 26 by a predetermined depth and is held in an inclinable state, that is, in a lock state in which shift operation is possible. Reference numeral 31 is an operation knob attached to the upper end side of the operation lever 24.

On the other hand, from the state shown in FIG.
When the operation lever 24 is pulled upward by holding the operation knob 31, for example, against the pulling force of 0, the lower end of the shaft body 24a of the operation lever 24 is further extended from the cylindrical body portion 22a of the operation lever holding portion 22. It projects upward and goes out to the U-shaped groove space between the support pieces 22b, 22b of the cylindrical body portion 22a.
The lower end rotates without any trouble through the groove space and the operating lever 2
The whole 4 is smoothly tilted to the front side of the vehicle body as indicated by the phantom line in FIG.

As a result, according to the structure of the vehicle retractable gear shift operating lever of the first embodiment of the present invention, the operator can tilt the operating lever 24 itself by simply lifting it up, and the knob of the operating lever 24 can be tilted. Since it can be operated anywhere by grasping it, the tilting operation becomes very easy.

In addition, the lifting operation of the operation lever 24 in that case is sufficient if there is a pulling force against the tensile urging force of the coil spring 30 which is always a constant urging force, so that the lock force is the same as in the conventional case. The case that it becomes difficult to lean can not occur depending on the size of.

The shaft 24a of the operating lever 24 is also provided.
One is enough, and it is no longer necessary to adopt a complicated structure such as splitting the shaft part into upper and lower parts and fitting a double-structured locking sleeve over them as in the conventional case.
It is possible to reduce the number of parts, the man-hours for assembly, and thereby the cost.

(2) Second Embodiment Next, FIGS. 3 and 4 show the construction and operation of a vehicle foldable gear shift operation lever according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the structure of the present embodiment, the basic structure is basically the same as that of the first embodiment, but the elongated hole 28 for obtaining the elevating stroke of the operation lever 24 is provided with the operation lever 24. The coil spring 30 is formed not on the side but on the support pieces 22a, 22a side of the operation lever holding portion 22 and also urges the operation lever 24 in the downward direction by pulling the first coil spring 30a and the second coil spring 3 together.
The first coil spring 3 is used by dividing it into two sets of 0b and 0b.
0a is the shaft side coil spring locking shaft 2 of the operating lever 24
9 and the operation lever support 22 side operation lever support piece 22a between the locking piece 33a near the front end, and the second coil spring 30b.
Is provided between the support pin 27 and the locking piece 33b of the upper wall portion of the hinge bracket 21 to obtain the same tension biasing force as in the case of the first embodiment. .

With this configuration, the first and second two
A more reliable locked state is realized by a sufficient tension force of the pair of coil springs 30a and 30b, and the lower end side locking portion of the first coil spring 30a is installed slightly deviated to the front side of the vehicle body. Therefore, when the operation lever 24 exceeds the upright position during the tilting operation, the pulling force of the first coil spring 30a acts in the direction of tilting the operation lever 24 this time, and the tilting is facilitated.

In some embodiments, the spring pressure of the first or second coil springs 30a, 30b is increased in this embodiment as well as the single coil spring 30 in the structure of the first embodiment, It goes without saying that a tensioning system using only one coil spring may be used.

(3) Third Embodiment Further, FIGS. 5 to 8 show the construction and operation of a vehicle foldable gear shift operation lever according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

That is, in the drawing, first, reference numeral 20 is the same type of gear shift operation lever, and the gear shift operation lever 20 is
A hinge bracket 22 provided with a shift lever piece 21 is roughly divided, an operation lever holding portion 23 provided on an upper portion of the hinge bracket 22, and an operation lever guide portion 32 provided on an upper portion of the operation lever holding portion 23. The operation lever holding portion 23 and the operation lever 24 held by the operation lever guide portion 32.

The hinge bracket 22 has an inverted U-shaped cross section, and both lower pieces 22a, 22a thereof are rotatably attached to the vehicle body side via a support shaft portion 25. The shift lever piece 21 is provided on one side of the lower pieces 22a, 22a.

Further, the operating lever holding portion 23 is a cylindrical body portion 23a extending upward by a predetermined height in a state of surrounding the operating lever insertion hole 26 formed at the center of the upper wall portion 22a of the hinge bracket 22. And operating lever support pieces 23b, 23b formed by extending a part of both sides of the cylindrical body portion 23a upward, and the operating lever 2 is formed in the cylindrical body portion 23a.
The lower end of the shaft portion 24a of No. 4 is slidably inserted in the vertical direction, and the operation lever 24 is supported by the operation lever support pieces 23b, 23b via the support pin 27. A stopper bracket 34 of the illustrated shape is provided at a position facing the U-shaped groove between the operation lever support pieces 23b, 23b of the hinge bracket upper wall portion 22b.

Further, the operating lever guide portion 32 is formed by having a tubular portion 32a for inserting the operating lever on the upper side and connecting pieces 32b, 32b on the lower side thereof.
32b is fitted to both ends of the support pin 27 and is pivotally supported as shown.

Further, the operating lever 24 has a shaft portion 2
An elongated hole 28 having a predetermined length and extending in the axial direction is formed in a supporting portion of the lower portion 4a by the supporting pin 27, and the supporting pin 27 is loosely inserted into the elongated hole 28 to form the first hole. As in the case of the embodiment, it is supported in a state where it can be vertically moved by a predetermined stroke alone. On the other hand, a coil spring locking shaft 29A projecting in parallel with the support pin 27 is provided at a predetermined height above the elongated hole 28 of the shaft body 24a, and the coil spring locking shaft 29A is provided.
A coil spring 30A having a predetermined pressure for pulling and biasing the operation lever 24 in a descending direction is hung between the opposite end portion 27a of the support pin 27 so as to surround the shaft body 24a of the operation lever 24. Therefore, the operation lever 24
5 is constantly operated by the tension urging force of the coil spring 30.
As shown in FIG. 6, the lower end of the shaft body 24a is inserted into the cylindrical body portion 23a of the operation lever holding portion 23 and the operation lever insertion hole 26 of the hinge bracket upper wall portion 22a, that is, the tiltable state, that is, the shift operation. Held in a possible locked state. Reference numeral 31 is an operation knob attached to the upper end side of the operation lever 24.

Therefore, in this structure, in a normal state, the operation lever 24 is always regulated to the lowest position by the tension urging action of the coil spring 30A, and the shaft 24a is kept.
Since the lower part is fitted in the operation lever holding part 23,
It is securely held in a locked state where it cannot be tilted and shift operation is possible.

On the other hand, from the state shown in FIG.
When the operation lever 24 is pulled upward against the pulling force of 0 A, the lower end of the shaft body 24a of the operation lever 24 projects upward from the cylindrical body portion 23a of the operation lever holding portion 23 and the cylindrical body portion 23a. Of the support pieces 23b, 23b, it comes out in the U-shaped groove space and rotates through the U-shaped groove space without any trouble, and the entire operation lever is smoothly tilted to the front side of the vehicle body. Moreover, when the operation lever 24 is brought into a sufficiently tilted state during the tilting, the lower end of the operation lever 24 hits the stopper bracket 34 to elastically lock the tilted state.

As a result, according to the structure of the vehicle retractable gear shift operation lever of the third embodiment of the present invention, first, like the first embodiment, the operation lever 24 itself can be tilted freely by simply lifting it up. Since it is possible to operate by grasping anywhere such as the knob of the operation lever 24, the tilting operation becomes very easy.

In addition, the lifting operation of the operating lever 24 in that case is always the constant biasing pressure.
Since it is sufficient to have a pulling force that resists the tensile urging force, the case where tilting is difficult unlike the conventional case cannot occur.

The shaft 24a of the operating lever 24 itself
Since only one is required, it is no longer necessary to divide the coaxial body part into two parts, the upper and lower parts, and to fit a double-structured locking sleeve over them, reducing the number of parts and man-hours for assembly. Can be reduced and the cost can be reduced accordingly.

Further, in the case of the embodiment, as described above,
Since the coil spring 30A is wound and hung on the shaft body 24a of the operation lever 24, the mounting state is stable and the cover is easy. Further, since the spring biasing force acts evenly on the entire shaft, the operation is stabilized.

In the case of this embodiment, the operation lever 2 is
The shaft body 24a of No. 4 is not limited to the support pieces 23a, 23a of the operation lever holding portion 23 as in the first embodiment, but is in any state from locked to tilted by the tubular body portion 32a of the operation lever guide portion 32. Since it is held over the entire length, the holding rigidity is increased.

Further, in the case of the same construction, since the pressing frictional force of the stopper bracket 34 realizes an analog click-like smooth operation feeling at the time of the final tilting and the returning operation, the operation feeling is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a vehicle-foldable shift operation lever according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part showing a tilting action of the operation lever.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a vehicle-foldable shift operation lever according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a main part showing a tilting action of the operation lever.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a vehicle-tilt type shift operation lever according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the operation lever.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a tilt start state of the operation lever.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a state in which the operation lever is completely tilted.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional vehicle foldable gear shift operation lever in a locked state showing the configuration thereof.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the operating lever in a tilted state.

[Explanation of symbols]

20 is a gear shift operation lever, 21 is a shift lever piece, 22 is a hinge bracket, 23 is an operation lever holding portion, 24 is an operation lever, 25 is a support shaft portion, 26 is an operation lever through hole, 2
7 is a support pin, 28 is a long hole, 29 is a coil spring locking shaft,
30 is a coil spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An inverted U-shaped rotatable hinge bracket for operating a shift lever, a tubular operation lever holding portion provided at an upper portion of the hinge bracket and having a U-shaped groove in an upper portion thereof, An operation lever whose lower end is fitted and supported so as to be relatively slidable and rotatable relative to the operation lever holding portion via a support shaft, and a spring member for constantly pulling and biasing the operation lever in the descending direction on the hinge bracket side. A retractable speed change lever for a vehicle, which includes and.