GB669818A - Improvements in or relating to adjustable steering wheel shafts for motor vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

669,818. Motor vehicle steering gear. BISHOP, R., and JOHNSTON, R. H. Feb. 21, 1949 [Feb. 20, 1948], No. 5161/48. Class 79 (v). An adjustable steering wheel shaft for a motor vehicle comprises a hollow shaft part adapted to receive another shaft part within it as a relatively close fit, the wall of the hollow part being formed with an aperture to receive a radially displaceable key, which normally extends at the inner end into a longitudinally extending key-way in the other shaft part and at the outer end externally of the wall, and a locking device mounted on the hollow part to engage the outwardly extending portion of the key and so formed that motion of the locking device in one direction will exert a wedging action tending to urge the key radially inwards of the bellow part to cause it to grip the base of the key-way in the other part. As shown in Fig. 2, a steering shaft part 1 is connected at one end to the steering box and at the other end is welded at 5 to a sleeve 4 which is carried by a bearing 13 in the steering column 2. The other shaft part 3, on which the steering wheel (not shown) is mounted, is a relatively close fit within the sleeve 4 and is provided with the keyway 11 and another key-way 9. The sleeve 4 is provided with apertures to receive the key 12 and another key 10 slidable in the key-ways 9, 11. Alternatively or additionally to the key 10 the sleeve 4 may be in splined engagement with the part 3. An hexagonal nut 15 or a ribbed or knurled cylinder (not shown) is fitted over the end of the sleeve 4 and is provided with an inner face to co-operate with a convex side of the key 12 urging teeth 12a thereon into or out of positive engagement with the base of the key-way 11 to permit axial adjustment of the shaft parts 1, 3. For this purpose the nut 15 may be formed with an eccentric bore or be concentrically bored and have a hard metal lining strip either thicker at one end than the other or supported at one end by a packing member between the bore and the strip, the major portion of the strip being unsupported between its two ends so as to be yieldable. In a modification, Fig. 6, a ribbed nut member 19 is in threaded engagement with the sleeve 4 and has a conical seating 23 bearing against an inclined face of a key 21 which is otherwise similar to the key 12. The seating 23 can be bored either concentrically or eccentrically.