US2278710A - Gauge for determining valve clearance - Google Patents

Description

' April 7 1942. I A. R. ORR 2,278,710

GAUGE FOR DETERMINING :VALVE CLEARANCE Filed'Dec. s, 1940 2 Sheets- Sheet 1 April 7, 1942. A. R; ORR

GAUGE FOR DETERMINING VALVE CLEARANCE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 3, 1940 Patented Apr. 7, 1942 UNITED GAUGE FOR DETERMINING VALVE CLEARANCE Alfred Richard Orr, Cripple Creek, 0010. Application December 3, 1940, Serial No. 368,387

Claims.

provide a valve clearance gauge for use in con- 1 nection with internal combustion valve gearing capable of being easily attached to the valve gearing and removed so that accurate clearance distances may be determined in a shorter period of time.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the following description of the accompanying drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a detailed end elevational view illustrating the device embodying the invention applied to the rocker arm of an over-head type valve gearing;

Figure 2 is a detailed side elevational view illustrating the manner in which the gauge is attached to the rocker arm of an over-head typev valve gearing; 1

Figure 3 is a detailed cross-sectional view illustrating the gauge greatly enlarged to disclose the operative parts thereof;

Figure 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows, illustrating a circuit maker and breaker for controlling a neon light or other visible indicator;

Figure 5 is a Vertical cross-sectional view taken on line 55 of Figure 3, looking in the direction of the arrows, illustrating the drive connection between the single offset contact and the indicating disk;

Figure 6 is a detail plan view of the graduated ring employed in the gauge;

Figure 7 is a vertical cross-sectional View taken on line 'II of Figure 4, looking in the direction of-the arrows, illustrating in detail the location of the neon light; and

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic view showing the wiring between the circuit maker and breaker and neon light.

In the drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustrating the invention and wherein like reference characters will be employed to designate like parts throughout the same, the reference character It) will generally be employed to designate an internal combustion engine having a removable head I I which carries a rocker arm support I2 on the upper end of which is pivoted a rocker arm I3. A push rod I4 engages one end of the rocker arm as at I5 while the other end It ofthe rocker arm is adapted to engage a valve stem [1 projecting upwardly through the head I I. A coil spring I8 surrounds the valve stem I1 and has one end abutting the upper wall of the removable head II, while the opposite end is in abutting relation with a Washer I9 rigidly secured to the valve stem. I

The above structure is shown for purpose of illustrating the invention and is known in the art of internal combustion engines as an overhead type valve gearing.

The invention comprises a gauge generally designated by the reference character which includes a cylindrical casing 2| adapted to be clamped to the end I6 of the rocker arm I3 by means of an encircling band 22 having an offset portion 24 for surrounding the rocker arm. The offset free ends 25 of the band 22 are locked together by means of a bolt 26 extending therethrough and being held in place by a nut 21 threaded on the end thereof.

One end of the cylindrical casing 2| is closed by an end wall 28-threadedin place as at 29 and centrally disposed on the inside of the end wall 28 is a boss 30 which forms an end thrust bearing for a rotary shaft 3 I, the opposite end of which is supported by means of a spool-shaped bearing member having a hub 32 through which the rotary shaft 3| extends. The hub is provided with end disks 33 and 34 which are adapted to engage the inner face of the cylindrical casing 2| and the disk 33 is provided adjacent its periphcry with a lug 35 which is anchored in place by a machine screw 36 extending through the casing and anchored in the lug.

Projecting tangentially from the cylindrical casing 2| is a tubular boss 3'! adapted to form a bearing for a slide rod 38, the lower end of which is threaded as at 39 for receiving a threaded coupling thimble 40 so that a single contact member 4I may be secured thereto by having its threaded end 42 received therein. The lower end of the contact rod 4| is adapted to engage the valve gearing washer I9 and it will be seen that as the contact rod M is carried by the rocker arm I3, the rod will be reciprocated during the intermittent motion of the valve gearing according to the clearance existing between the end |5 of the rocker arm and the end of the valve stem IT.

The upper end of the slide rod 38 is bifurcated as at 43 and is attached as at M to one end of an oscillating lever 45 pivoted as at 46 to a stub shaft 41 rigidly secured to the disk 34 of the spool-like bearing. The other end of the oscillating lever 45 carries segmental gear teeth 48 which are adapted to engage gear teeth 49 formed on the rotary shaft 3| so that reciprocation of the slide rod 38 and contact rod 4| will cause the rotary shaft 3| to rotate in alternate directions.

Rigidly secured to the free end of the rotary shaft 3| is a disk 53, the periphery of which extends nearly to the inner surface of y the casing 2|, and the disk 50 is presented adjacent the open end of the casing so that it may be visible therethrough.

Rotatably mounted in the open end of the cylindrical casing 2| is a graduated ring 5| having a flange 52 which engages the inner surface of the cylindrical casing and abutments 53 are formed on the end of the casing for holding the rotatable graduated ring 5| in position.

Formed in the disk 50 is an attenuated slot 55 in back of which is located a neon-type light 55 which is supported by a suitable base 55. The neon light 55 is of the same length as the slot so that said slot will be illuminated intermittently at the end of the rotary movement of the disk 50 in alternate directions.

As shown in Fig. 8, the neon light 55 is in circuit with a series transformer 57 having a line terminal 58 and a line terminal 59, the latter being connected to a source of current 50 which is adapted to be alternately closed to produce intermittent flashes of light when the disk 50 reaches the ends of its oscillating motions.

To produce the intermittent closing of the circuit through the neon light 50 at the ends of its oscillatory travel, a switch is carried by the disk 55 and includes a pair of stationary contact members SI and 62 connected by lead lines 53 and 54 to the line terminal 58. The stationary contact members are provided with respective adjusting screws 65 and E6 threaded in place whereby minute adjustments may .be made to compensate for variations in desired closing of the circuit.

Rigidly secured to the disk 55, as at 61, is a pair of spring contact arms 68 and 59 which are adapted to normally be out of contact with their respective adjustment screws 65 and 6t and said spring arms are held in place by means of a bolt 70 extending through the disk 50 and the anchoring hub H carrying the spring arms.

A light coil spring l3 has its ends connected to the spring arms 58 and 69 to exert a slight inward pressure thereon into engagement with the contacts 5| and 52. I

The graduated ring 5| may be marked off to provide graduations denoting thousandths of an inch so that as the disk 50 reaches the end of its oscillatory movement in one direction, the light tube 55 will be illuminated and then by moving the graduated dial 5| to registry with the zero marking thereon in alignment with the occurrence of the light, the exact clearance of the valve gearing may be determined by denoting the occurrence of the light in registry with the graduations 14 upon its second occurrence.

It is to be noted that as the disk 50 is rotated in opposite directions, the inertia thus produced when the disk stops at the end of its travel in one direction for its return movement, will cause the contact arms 68 and 69 to alternately close thereby producing a complete circuit through the source of current 60 and gaseous tube element 55. When the rotary disk 50 is rotating clockwise, the inertia will cause the spring contact arm 68 to engage the adjustable contact screw 65 when the disk reaches the end of such rotary movement. Similarly, upon the return movement of the rotary disk 50 in a counterclockwise direction, the spring contact arm 63 will be closed by the inertia force when the disk reaches the end of such rotary movement so that the gaseous neon light 55 will again be illuminated. The wiring arrangement and the source of energy for the illumination of the neon light 55 is shown in Fig. 8 and in said figure the rotary disk 50 has been rotated to its limit of movement in a clockwise direction which by inertia has brought the contact arm 68 into engagement with the contact 6|, the current then flowing from one terminal of the battery 50 over the wire 59 and through the series transformer 51, wire 58 and wire 63 to the contact 5| and contact arm 68 and over the wire from said contact arm 58 to the other terminal of the battery 6!). The neon light 55 is shown in circuit with the series transformer 51 and is illuminated. When the disk 50 reaches its limit of rotary movement in a counterclockwise direction, the contact arm 69 moves into engagement with the contact 62, the circuit then flowing over the lines described for the illumination of the neon light 55. It will be understood that between the extreme limits of oscillatory movements of the disk 50, both contact arms 58 and 69 remain spaced from the contacts GI and 52 with the battery out of communication with the neon light 55.

It will be readily observed, that the current from the source 60 being placed in circuit with the neon light 55 at the end of the rotary movement of the disk 50 in alternate directions will produce the occurrence of the light in two different positions, which occurrences when aligned in registry with the graduations M on the rotary dial 5| may be employed for determining the clearance between the valve gearing, including the rocker arm |3 and the upper free end of the valve stem I'I. t

It is to be noted that the resiliency of the movable contact arms 68 and 69 is such as to allow the contacts to open after they have closed at the end of the alternate rotary movements imparted to the disk 55. In this manner, the light is not illuminated between the limits of the alternate rotary movements of the disk.

It is also to be noted that the form of the in vention herewith shown and described is to be taken as a preferred embodiment of the same and that various changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the sub-joined claims.

I claim:

1. A valve gauge comprising a casing adapted to be positioned on the valve gearing of an engine, an offset contact carried by the casing, an oscillatable disk within the casing, operative connections between the disk and offset contact for effecting oscillations of said disk and means rendered visible at the limits of oscillatory movements of the disk for determining the extent of movements of the disk.

2. A valve gauge comprising a casing adapted to be positioned on the rocker arm of valve gearing, a movable contact member carried by the casing for engaging a portion of the valve stem of the gearing and movable means operatively engaged with the contact member and rendered visible only at the limits of movements of said means for indicating the clearance between the rocker arm and valve stem.

3. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carried by the casing, a rotary disk mounted within the casing, operative connections between said contact member and disk for effecting oscillatory movements of the disk, illuminating means carried by the disk and means for operating the illuminating means at the end of the rotary movements in alternate directions of said disk.

4. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carried by the casing, a rotary disk mounted Within the casing, a, lever operatively engaged at its opposite ends with the contact member and the rotary disk whereby reciprocations of the contact member Will cause oscillations to be imparted to the disk and illuminating means carried bythe disk operable when the rotary disk reaches the end of its oscillation.

5. A valve gauge comprising a casing, an offset contact member carried by the casing, a rotary disk mounted within the casing operatively engaged with the offset contact memberand adapted to be operated thereby, illuminating means carried by the rotary disk for projecting a light beam 'through' an attenuated slot formed therein, a circuitmaker andbreaker carried by the rotary disk adapted to close the circuit through the illuminatingmeans when the rotary disk reaches the end of its travel in alternate directions and a dial for registry with the occurrence of the illuminating means.

ALFRED RICHARD ORR.

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