Device for selecting and engaging the gear of a mechanical gearbox.
The present invention relates to a device for selecting and engaging the gear of a mechanical gearbox for a motor vehicle in accordance with the preamble of claim 1. A device of this kind is known from EP-0 620 387, in particular from Figure 21 and the associated description in this publication.
In the known device, the connection between the select shaft and the lever comprises a conventional keyed connection, which ensures that the lever and the select shaft are connected to one another such that they are fixed in terms of rotation but displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the select shaft.
On the one hand, the connection between the lever and select shaft must permit easy displacement of the select shaft and, on the other hand, only a small degree of play is permissible, viewed in the rotation direction of the select shaft, in order to achieve the required accuracy of the positions of the select shaft. This accuracy needs to be ensured throughout the service life of the device. The keyed connection between the select shaft and the lever of the known device has the drawback that, particularly if the device has to be produced in large numbers, it cannot fulfil the abovementioned conditions, or can do so only at high cost . The object of the present invention is to eliminate the abovementioned problems.
To this end, the present invention provides a device in accordance with claim 1. Further advantageous embodiments and advantages of the device according to the invention are described in the subclaims and the following description of an exemplary embodiment of the device according to the invention, which embodiment is shown in the drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 diagrammatically shows a cross-section in a plane through the first axis of an exemplary embodiment of
the device according to the invention, and
Fig. 2 shows a cross-section on the line II-II in Fig. 1.
Figures 1 and 2 diagrammatically show a part of a device for selecting and engaging a desired gear of a mechanical gearbox (not shown) for a motor vehicle. All that is shown of that part of the device which interacts with the gearbox is a part of select shaft 1, on which a gear-shift finger is fixedly arranged, which gear-shift finger can be coupled in a manner known per se to a gear¬ shift mechanism of the gearbox. The gear-shift finger can be moved in a conventional H-shaped pattern by moving the select shaft 1; in this example, the pattern has a neutral line with five forward gears and a reverse gear. For a detailed description of the mechanical design of the device, reference is made to the publication EP-0 620 387, which has already been mentioned.
The select shaft 1 is displaceable in the direction of a first axis 2, which coincides with the longitudinal axis of the select shaft, which displacement corresponds to a displacement along the neutral line of the gearbox, and it is also rotatable about its longitudinal axis 2, which rotation corresponds to the engagement of a desired gear or to shifting into the neutral line. In order to effect the desired displacement of the select shaft 1 in the direction of the first axis 2, the device comprises a first hydraulic piston-cylinder assembly 5. The first assembly 5 has a piston rod 6 which projects into a bore 7 in the end of select shaft 1. In order to effect the desired rotation of the select shaft 1 about the first axis 2, the device comprises a second hydraulic piston-cylinder assembly 15. The second assembly has a piston 16 which is connected to a reciprocatingly movable element 17. The element 17 is guided reciprocably along a second axis 18 in the housing of the device, the second axis 18 extending in a plane which is substantially perpendicular to the first axis 2 and the second axis 18 is spaced a distance from the first axis 2. A lever 20, which converts a displacement of the
reciprocable element 17 into a rotation of the select shaft 1 about the first axis 2, is situated between the reciprocable element 17 and the select shaft 1. The lever 20 is pivotable about the first axis 2 and in the direction of the first axis 2 is mounted at a fixed location in the stationary part of the device and acts on part of the select shaft 1. The connection between the lever 20 and the select shaft l forms a rigid connection in the direction of a rotation about the first axis 2 and a sliding connection in the direction of the first axis 2. The connection between the lever 20 and the reciprocatingly movable element 17 is a pivoting connection.
By means of the two piston-cylinder assemblies 5 and 15, the piston rods thereof can each be moved into the three positions which are required to realize the abovementioned shifting pattern and can be held in those positions.
It is important that the gear-shift finger assumes its position on the neutral line very accurately, since in practice a tolerance of only a few tenths of millimetres is permitted on each side of the neutral line. In order to achieve this accuracy and to be able to ensure this accuracy over a long period, it is provided that that part of the select shaft 1 on which the lever 20 acts is provided with two flat surfaces 11, 12 which are positioned diametrically opposite one another and extend parallel to one another and to the first axis 2, and the lever 20 is provided with an opening through which that part of the select shaft 1 which is provided with flat surfaces 11, 12 projects. The opening in the lever 20 has two flat surfaces 21, 22, which are positioned opposite one another, are substantially parallel and interact in a sliding manner with the flat surfaces 11, 12 of the select shaft 1.
In the embodiment shown, the lever 20 is provided with a substantially cylindrical insertion opening 23, which extends perpendicular to the first axis 2 and is intended to receive a U-shaped member 30, viewed in the direction of the first axis 2, which member 30 is likewise cylindrical in the direction of the centre line of the
insertion opening 23.
The U-shaped member 30 has two parallel limbs and a connecting part which connects the limbs together at one end. The inner side of each limb forms one of the flat surfaces 21, 22 which delimit the through opening of the select shaft 1 and interacts in a sliding manner with the associated flat surface 11, 12 of the select shaft 1.
Each limb of the U-shaped member 30 is provided at its free end with a bevelled surface 31, 32 on its outer side, and the insertion opening 23 is provided with inclined flat parts which interact therewith. In order to be able to adjust the play between the flat surfaces 11, 12 of the select shaft 1 and the flat surfaces 21, 22 of the lever 20 during assembly of the device, a threaded bolt 25 is provided. This threaded bolt 25 is screwed into a threaded hole, which extends parallel to the centre line of the insertion opening 23 and next to this opening 23, and thus presses against the end face, which projects out of the opening 23, of the U-shaped member 30. By forcibly tightening the threaded bolt 25, the oblique surfaces 31, 32 move the limbs of the U-shaped member 30 towards one another at their free end, thus making the distance between the surfaces 21, 22 smaller. In this way, the play between select shaft 1 and the lever 20 can be set as desired, and manufacturing tolerances can be compensated, so that the select shaft 1 is displaceable in the lever 20 with little friction and the play in the rotation direction is very small.
For the connection between the lever 20 and the reciprocatingly movable element 17, the cylindrical element 17 is provided with two recesses, which are situated at a distance from one another, viewed in the direction of the first axis 2 , and are made by providing the element 17 with two recessed portions 35 and 36 which are situated diametrically opposite one another.
The recessed portions 35, 36 are delimited at their ends in the direction of the second axis 18 by side faces which extend perpendicular to the second axis 18. Furthermore, the recessed portions 35, 36 form flat
surfaces 37, 38 which extend parallel to one another and perpendicular to the first axis 2.
The lever 20 is provided with two limbs 27, 28, which extend in a plane perpendicular to the first axis 2 and each project, by their free end, in a plane perpen¬ dicular to the first axis 2, into a recessed portion 36, 35 in the recriprocatingly movable element 17 in a freely pivotable manner. The free end of each limb 27, 28 of the lever 20 forms an axial segment of a cylinder (see Fig. 2) , the axis 29 of the cylinder segment extending parallel to the first axis 2 and perpendicular to the second axis 18, and the diameter of the cylinder segment substantially corresponding to the distance between the side surfaces of the recessed portion 35, 36 in the reciprocatingly movable element 17.
Furthermore, that part of each of the limbs 27, 28 of the lever 20 which projects into a recessed portion 35, 36 is provided on the side facing the other limb with a flat surface which interacts in a sliding manner with the adjacent flat surface of the reciprocatingly movable element 17.
The connection described between the lever 20 and the reciprocatingly movable element 17 can advantageously be mass-produced with the manufacturing tolerances which are required in order to achieve a very small degree of play. Furthermore, it is advantageous that there is a linear contact between a cylinder-segment-shaped end of a limb 27, 28, on the one hand, and the adjacent side face of the relevant recessed portion 35, 36 in the recriprocatingly movable element 17, on the other hand. Due to this linear contact, less wear is observed than in the case of a solution with a ball sliding in a cylindrical bore, as described in EP-0 620 387.