JPS58202162A - Rack and pinion type steering gear apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent sounds that will result from striking teeth of a rack and teeth of a pinion from occurring, by interposing a cushioning body between a retainer and an adjust cover. CONSTITUTION:Though the oscillation of the rack is transmitted via the retainer 10 to the cushioning body 20, the oscillation of the retainer 10 can be absorbed by the resilient deformation of the cushioning body 20. Further, since the cushioning body 20 has a damping force, and the cushioning body 20 is compressed by the retainer 10 thereby expanding the cushioning body 20 in a direction normal to the direction of the compression, the friction between the cushioning body 20 and the wall of a gear housing 1 is increased, and the retainer 10 is damped by this friction, so that the teeth of the rack 7 would not disengage from the teeth of the pinion 5, which prevents backlash between the teeth of the rack 7 and the teeth of the pinion 5 from occurring.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a rank-and-binion type steering gear device that prevents hammering noise caused by the collision of teeth between a rack and a binion.

As a conventional rank-and-binion type steering gear device, there is one shown in FIG. 1, for example. In FIG. 1, l is a gear housing, and a part of a binion shaft 2 is housed in this gear housing l, and this binion shaft 2 is connected to a gear via a needle bearing 3 and a ball bearing 4 at both ends thereof. Housing 1
A binion 5 is formed.

A portion of the binion shaft 2 protruding from the gear housing 1 is connected to a steering handle (not shown) via a steering column, so that the binion 5 is rotationally driven by the steering handle.

An oil seal 6 is fitted into the opening between the gear housing l and the pinion shaft 2 to prevent oil in the gear housing l from leaking. A rack 7 is engaged with the biniore 15, and both ends of the rack 7 protrude from the gear housing l in a direction perpendicular to the drawing. Both ends of the rack 7 are connected to wheels (not shown) via other members such as side wheels so as to steer the wheels. The retainer IO has recesses 10a and 10b formed at its upper and lower ends in the figure, and the recess 10a
is slidably housed in the gear housing l so as to come into contact with the back surface of the rack 7. The adjustment cover 12 has a recess 12a formed at its upper end in the figure, and a bolt head 12b formed at its lower end. The adjustment cover 12 is screwed to the gear housing 1 with bolts 1Iliil12b protruding outward. A compression coil spring 15 is interposed between the recess 10b of the retainer 10 and the recess 12a of the adjustment cover 12, and biases the rack 7 against the binion 5 via the retainer 10.

In general, there are errors in the shape or dimensions of the teeth of the binion 5 and the rack 7, as well as errors in the dimensions and assembly state of other parts, so when the binion 5 is rotated, the rack 7 is rotated at a constant amplitude. It moves away from or approaches the axis of the binion 5. As a result, a gap equal to the amplitude is provided between the lower end of the retainer 10 and the upper end of the adjust cover 12, and the adjust cover 12 is attached to the gear housing 1.
The tightening is fixed. A lock nut 17 is screwed to the adjustment cover 12, and this screw connection prevents the adjustment cover 12 from loosening. In addition, if such a rack-and-binion type steering gear device is used for a long period of time, the teeth of the binion 5 and rank 7 will wear out, and at the same time, the rear surface of the rack 7 and the teeth of the retainer 0 will also wear out, so the above-mentioned gap will be It gets even bigger. In such a case, the panocranosis between the - of the pinion 5 and the teeth of the rack 7 becomes large (and the efficiency of transmitting the movement between the pinion 5 and the rack 7 becomes rapid. Therefore, loosen the lock nut 17 and adjust it. It was necessary to control the tightening position of the cover 12 and reduce the gap again.Furthermore, in such a conventional latch and pinion type steering gear device, as mentioned above, the retainer lO Since there is a gap between the lower end and the upper end of the adjustment cover 12, when the car is driving on a rough road, the vibrations from the wheels cause the teeth of the rack 7 to move away from the teeth of the nonion 5 by the amount of the gap, and then again. When the teeth of the rack 7 collide with the - of the pinion 5, or when the rotation of the pinion 5 is reversed by turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction, there is a gap between the teeth of the pinion 5 and the teeth of the rack 7. After the teeth of the pinion 5 are once separated from the teeth of the rack 7, a situation occurs in which the teeth of the pinion 5 collide with another tooth of the rack 7 again. Binion 5 like this
There is a problem in that the collision between the teeth of the rack 7 and the teeth of the rack 7 generates a hitting sound, giving the impression of an unpleasant noise.

This invention was made by focusing on such conventional problems, and there is a 4II gap between the retainer and the adjustment cover.
The purpose is to solve the above problems by interposing the FII body.

The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing a first embodiment of the present invention. First, the configuration will be explained. It should be noted that only the same reference numerals are given to the same components as in the prior art, and the explanation thereof will be omitted. Canada is
It is a loose body located around the compression spring 15 and interposed between the lower end of the retainer lO and the end of the adjustment cover 12.

This loose addition is made of an elastic material such as rubber.

Next, the action will be explained.

When the driver rotates the steering wheel to rotate the pinion 5, the rack 7 swings by -1 within a certain dimension due to various IA differences as described above. At this time, the amplitude motion of the rack 7 is transmitted to the loose body 20 via the retainer 10, but the amplitude of the rack 7 is 1!1@h
can be absorbed by the elastic deformation of the relaxation body 20. When the car runs on a downhill road, the teeth of the rack 7 tend to separate from the teeth of the pinion 5 due to vibrations from the wheels, causing the rack 7 to move away from the retainer 10. In this case, the relaxation body 20 has a damping force and the buffer is compressed by the retainer 10 as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 3 and expands in a direction perpendicular to the compression direction. As a result, the frictional force between the loose body and the wall surface of the gear housing l increases, and this frictional force brakes the retainer 10, so that the teeth of the rack 7 do not separate from the teeth of the pinion 5. It is possible to prevent back rack from occurring between the teeth of the pinion 5 and the teeth of the pinion 7. Also, as described above, the lower end of the retainer 10 and the adjusting cover 12
By interposing a buffer between the retainer 10 and the upper end, there is no gap between the lower end of the retainer 10 and the upper end of the adjustable cover 12 due to various errors as in the conventional case.

As a result, since there is no panocratic gap between the teeth of the pinion 5 and the teeth of the rack 7 caused by the gap, the steering wheel is turned back (even when the rotation of the pinion 5 is set to a free point, the teeth of the pinion 5 are not connected to the rack 7). There is no situation where the teeth of the binion 5 come into contact with another tooth of the rack 76 again after being separated from the teeth.As mentioned above, the rank and...
If the pinion type steering gear device is used for a long period of time, the pinion 5, rack 7, and retainer IO will wear out and cracks will occur between the teeth of the pinion 5 and the teeth of the pinion 7. Taking this into consideration, the buffer body 20 is compressed to a certain NJt and the retainer IO is pressed down by that amount, thereby preventing the occurrence of the bump.

Embodiments 2 to 6 are shown in FIGS. 4 to 8.

In the twelfth embodiment shown in Fig. w44, a tapered surface is formed on the circumferential surface of the other end of the retainer 1o, and the tapered surface and the adjustment cover 12
A buffer body 21 having a substantially triangular cross section is interposed between the F-shape and the F-shape. In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 5, n is a cylinder located outside the compression spring 15 within the recess 10bj of the retainer 1o and the recess 12a of the adjustment cover 12. A buffer member extending radially outward is fixed to approximately the center of the length of the cylinder n. This easy-to-understand edict is for the F end of the retail lO and the adjustment cover.
) 12. 1
In the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. It is something. In the second to fourth embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, when the shock absorber 2L23.5 is compressed, it expands in a direction that presses against the wall surface of the gear housing l, so that the shock absorber 2L23.5 and the gear The retainer lO is braked by increasing the frictional force with the wall surface of the housing l.

In the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 7, a downwardly enlarged tapered surface υ is formed at the lower end of the retainer lO, and at the same time, a tapered surface tool is formed at the upper end of the adjustment cover 12, which abuts on the tapered surface n.

A notch opening is formed on the outer peripheral side of the lower end of the retainer IO, and a buffer is interposed at the threshold between this notch and the upper end of the adjustment cover 12. Retainer 1
0 is made of an elastic material such as resin. In this embodiment, the rack 7 allows the retainer IO
When the retainer lO is lowered, since the retainer lO has elasticity, the retainer 10 is pushed radially outward by the tapered surface of the adjustment cover 12, and the frictional force between the buffer body and the wall surface of the gear housing l increases. This causes the retainer lO to be braked. The 16 embodiments shown in Fig.
A buffer body 31 is interposed between the lower end of 0 and ) 4 of the adjustment cover 12, and an annular I432 that opens on the inner peripheral surface of the buffer body 3I is formed. A spring 33 that has a shape is housed therein.In this embodiment, the spring blades constantly press and spread the shock absorber 31 against the wall surface of the gear housing l, so that the shock absorber 31 and the gear housing l The retainer lO is braked by increasing the frictional force between the retainer lO and the wall surface.

In addition, in the 11th to 6th embodiments described above, the retainer 10
A compression coil spring 15 is inserted as an elastic body between the recess tob of the adjustment cover 12 and the recess 12a of the adjustment cover 12.
However, in the present invention, it is not necessarily limited to this compression coil spring, and an elastic body such as rubber may also be used.

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the structure is such that a buffer is interposed between the retainer and the adjustment cover, the impact noise caused by the collision between the teeth of the rank and the teeth of the pinion is reduced. This has the effect of being able to prevent the occurrence of this problem and realize comfortable driving. Further, when assembling the steering gear device, it is no longer necessary to manually adjust the gap between the retainer and the adjust cover using the adjust cover as in the prior art, and the assembling work efficiency can be improved.

In addition to the above-mentioned effects, the second to sixth embodiments improve the effect of braking the retainer by increasing the frictional force between the buffer body and the wall surface of the gear housing. By preventing the occurrence of a puncture crack between the rack and the rack, it is possible to more reliably prevent the occurrence of a g-thumping sound caused by a collision between the teeth of the rack and the teeth of the rack.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a partial sectional view of a conventional rack-and-binion steering gear device, and Fig. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of a rank-and-binion steering gear device according to the present invention.
l Partial cross-sectional view of part of the mounting, retainer, shock absorber and adjustment force 1 of the embodiment, @3- is the retainer in Fig. 2.
An enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the shock absorber and adjustment cover;
FIG. 14 is an enlarged sectional view of a retainer, a buffer body, and a portion of an adjustable cover according to a second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a third embodiment of this invention, and FIG.
Enlarged sectional view of the example! @ Figure 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the w45 embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the sixth embodiment of the invention. 1 Gear housing, 5 Binion, 7 Rack, 1O retainer, 12 Adjustment cover, 15 Compression spring, 20.2123.5, (fund), 31 Buffer. Patent applicant: Nichido Jidosha Co., Ltd. Agent
Patent Attorney Ariga Army - Department Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 O I and Figure 7//) 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] A binion that is rotatably supported by the gear housing and rotationally driven by the steering handle, a rack that engages with the binion and steers the wheels, and a retainer that is slidably housed in the gear housing and can abut against the back of the rank.
A rack-and-wheel drive system that engages an adjustment cover that closes the gear housing and an elastic body that is interposed between the adjustment cover and the retainer and urges the retainer toward the back of the rack.
A rack-and-binion steering gear device (1) characterized in that a slowing body is interposed between the retainer and the steering cover.