JPS6225548B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Fuel tanks for small vehicles such as motorcycles are subject to acceleration, deceleration, and vibrations that occur during driving, so it is important to install a fuel detector to detect the amount of fuel remaining in the tank at any position in the tank. Even so, it was necessary to provide a high degree of sealing performance to the opening in which the fuel detector was installed.

However, in many conventional systems, a sealing member is sandwiched between the tank wall and the mounting plate of the fuel detector, and bolts or screws are passed through and tightened across the mounting plate and the tank wall. , a special shaped seal member is required to surround the bolt or screw, and a reinforcing plate for supporting the bolt or screw must be attached to the inner surface of the tank wall, making the structure complex and difficult to process. The downside was that it was low.

The present invention relates to an improvement of a fuel tank for small vehicles that eliminates such drawbacks, and its purpose is to:
The object of the present invention is to provide a fuel tank for a small vehicle with a simple structure in which a fuel detector can be attached detachably and watertightly.

An embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 9 will be described below. Reference numeral 1 denotes a main frame made of a pipe. The rear part of the main frame 1 is curved downward, and the rear part of the main frame 1 is curved downward. The sub-frame 2 is branched out in a bifurcated shape.

The fuel tank 3, which can straddle the main frame 1 and the sub-frame 2 and is elongated in the front and back, has an upper plate member 4 press-formed into an inverted U-shape with a large cross-section, and a fuel tank 3 with a small cross-section. The lower plate member 5 is press-formed into an inverted U-shape, and both joint portions 4a and 5a are curved so as to be oriented substantially vertically, and are joined together in an air-watertight manner by seam welding or the like. has been done.

The outer periphery of the upper plate member 4 is formed into a smooth convex curved surface except for the fuel inlet 6, and a cap 7 is removably fitted into the fuel inlet 6.

Further, in the upper central part of the lower plate member 5 constituting the bottom wall of the fuel tank 3, a concave part 8 having two stages is formed, and a fuel detector 12 is inserted into the bottom of the concave part 8. A stay 10 is integrally fixed to the lower surface 8a of the first step from above of the recessed portion 8 by spot welding.

Further, a bolt 11 is passed through the stay 10 in advance and is fixed to the stay 10 integrally by welding or the like.

Furthermore, on the base 13 of the fuel detector 12 mounted on the stay 10, an O-ring 18 serving as a sealing material is attached to the first stage lower surface 8a from above the recessed portion 8.
The step 14 is formed so that there is a space in which the bolt 11 can be inserted. is penetrated through the hole and is detachably attached to the concave portion 8 with a nut 19 in an air- and water-tight manner.

A float pivot 15 is integrally provided in the center of the upper surface of the base 13 of the fuel detector 12, and
A float 17 is swung vertically on the float pivot 14 via a lever 16 so that the float 17 can be swung vertically within the left side space 3l of the fuel tank 3. The remaining amount of fuel is electrically detected.

Further, a fuel tank support pipe 20 is provided protruding from the lower front surface of the main frame 1, and a bracket 21 into which both ends of the pipe 20 can be fitted from the rear is fixed integrally to the front side surface of the lower plate member 5 by spot welding or the like. ing.

Further, at the rear of the fuel tank 3, a mounting base 22 is integrally fixed to the lower plate member 5, a stay 23 is integrally fixed to the base 22 by welding in advance, and a bolt insertion hole 24 is provided in the stay 23. ing.

Furthermore, mounting plates 25 as shown in FIG. 9 are integrally fixed to the lower surfaces of the two sub-frames 2, with bolt insertion holes 24 of the stay 23 and bolt insertion holes 2 of the mounting plate 25.
A bolt 27 is inserted through 6 and 6, and a nut 28 is screwed onto the tip of the bolt 27.

Since the embodiment shown in the drawings is constructed as described above, after the O-ring 18 is fitted into the first stage lower surface 8a of the recessed part, the float 17 of the fuel detector 12 is inserted into the bottom wall opening of the fuel tank 3. Same tank 3 from 9
The fuel detector 12 is inserted into the left side space 3l, the bolt insertion hole 29 of the base 13 of the fuel detector 12 is fitted into the bolt 11 integrated with the stay 10, and the nut 18 is screwed and tightened. It can be installed in the recessed part 8 of the bottom wall of the fuel tank 3 in an air- and water-tight manner.

After the fuel detector 12 is installed in the fuel tank 3 in this way, the fuel tank 3 is lowered from above the main frame 1, the bracket 21 is engaged with the fuel tank support pipe 20 that is integrated with the main frame 1, Each hole 2 of the stay 23 and mounting plate 25
The fuel tank 3 can be securely attached to the main frame 1 and the subframe 2 by inserting the bolt 27 into the bolts 4 and 26 and tightening the nut 28 onto the tip of the bolt 27.

Further, by performing the operations in reverse to those described above, the fuel tank 3 can be removed from the main frame 1 and the subframe 2, and the fuel detector 12 can be taken out from the fuel tank 3.

In this manner, in the embodiment described above, the fuel detector 12 can be easily attached to and detached from the fuel tank 3.

The bottom wall recess 8 of the fuel tank 3 is configured to be recessed in two stages, and the seat and hole for mounting the fuel detector 12 are formed by forming an inverted U-shape on the lower plate member 5. It is possible to mold the fuel tank 3 at the same time, and the workability of the fuel tank 3 is good.

Furthermore, since the bolt 11 is passed through and fixed to the stay 10 in advance, and the stay 10 is fixed integrally to the step lower surface 8a of the bottom concave portion 8 of the fuel tank 3, attachment and detachment of the base 13 of the fuel detector 12 is extremely easy. It is.

Furthermore, since the bottom wall concave portion 8 of the fuel tank 3 is pressed into a two-stage concave shape, the area around the opening 9 is reinforced and stiffened.

Moreover, since the recess 8 and the opening 9 for mounting the fuel detector 12 are formed approximately in the center of the lower plate member of the fuel tank 3, the appearance of the fuel tank 3 is similar to that of a conventional fuel tank without a fuel detector. Since the shape is almost the same as that of a tank, no deterioration in appearance is avoided, and there is no need to form a seat or hole on the side surface of the lower plate member 5 for attaching the fuel detector 12, press processing of the lower plate member 5 is required. At the same time, the recessed part 8 and the opening part 9 can be press-formed at once, resulting in high productivity.
Accuracy is also high.

Further, the lower surface 8a of the first step of the recessed portion 8, the upper surface 13a of the base 13, and the outer surface 8 of the stepped portion of the recessed portion 8.
Since the O-ring 18 is surrounded by the upper surface 14a of the step 14 in the base 13, the O-ring 1
8 swells, the O-ring 18 swells so that the sealing performance of the O-ring 18 works more reliably, and the sealing performance is improved.

In the above embodiments, the present invention was applied to a fuel tank for a motorcycle, but it can also be applied to a fuel tank for a small vehicle such as a four-wheeled vehicle.

As described above, the present invention provides an opening in the wall of the fuel tank for mounting the fuel detector, a seal member is provided around the opening, and a mounting plate for the fuel detector is provided on the outer wall of the tank. A support stay is provided, which is connected by a fastening means such as a bolt or a nut, and which also forms a holding part for the sealing member.
The fuel detector mounting opening can be sealed with the fuel detector mounting plate via a sealing member without forming a hole for binding the fastening means in the wall of the fuel tank, reducing the number of sealing locations, The fuel tank can be reliably sealed.

Further, in the present invention, since no binding hole is formed in the wall portion of the fuel tank, a sealing portion for sealing the binding hole is not required, and the sealing member can be downsized.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since a stepped portion is formed around the fuel detector mounting opening provided in the top wall of the inverted U-shaped recessed portion of the bottom wall of the fuel tank, the vicinity of the opening can be reinforced with this stepped portion. I can do it.

Moreover, in the present invention, a stepped portion is formed around the opening for mounting the fuel detector, and a base having a float pivot portion above is also provided with an opposing portion that cooperates with the stepped portion to hold the sealing member in pressure contact with the base. Since the stepped portion is formed, the sealing member can be firmly and stably interposed between the top wall of the recessed portion of the tank bottom wall and the base, thereby achieving reliable watertightness.

Although the present invention has been described above in detail with reference to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments, and can be freely modified as necessary without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The design can be modified.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a bottom view illustrating an embodiment of the fuel tank for small vehicles according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional side view taken along the - line in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the main parts thereof. 4 is a view in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 2, and FIG. 6 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional side view of the rear of FIG. Figures 7 and 8 are the - line in Figure 6,
9 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part of FIG. 6. 1... Main frame, 2... Sub frame,
3... Fuel tank, 4... Upper plate member, 5... Lower plate member, 6... Fuel inlet, 7... Cap,
8... Concave portion, 9... Opening, 10... Stay, 1
1... Bolt, 12... Fuel detector, 13... Base, 14... Step, 15... Float pivot,
16...Lever, 17...Float, 18...O
Ring, 19... Nut, 20... Fuel tank support pipe, 21... Bracket, 22... Mounting base, 23... Stay, 24... Bolt insertion hole, 25... Mounting plate, 26... Bolt Insertion hole, 27... Bolt, 28... Nut, 29...
...Bolt insertion hole.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A recess with a substantially inverted U-shaped cross section along the vehicle body frame oriented in the longitudinal direction is formed approximately in the center of the bottom wall of the tank, and a fuel detector is installed on the top wall of the recess located directly above the vehicle body frame. Provide an opening to attach the
A step is formed around the opening of the top wall of the concave portion, a sealing member is fitted into the step, and the base is provided with a float pivot portion above which swingably supports the float of the fuel detector. , forming an opposing step part that cooperates with the step part to hold the sealing member in pressure contact, and fastening the base to the outer surface around the opening of the top wall of the recessed part with a fastening means such as a bolt or a nut. A fuel tank for small vehicles characterized by an integrated stay.