Abstract: An engine is mounted on a motor vehicle chassis with at least one rubber metal mount acted upon hydraulically to vary its spring rate under the control of a hydraulic control device. The motor vehicle have has at least one wheel mounted in a sprung fashion to the chassis and the engine displacement vibrations are minimized by a displacement transducer placed between the wheel and the chassis that signals the control device to hydraulically increase the spring rate of the engine mount with increasing displacement between the wheel and chassis in advance of wheel movement passed through the chassis affecting the engine in a predetermined frequency range.

Abstract: An acoustic inspection method is disclosed for determining in a catalytic converter monolith substrate whether a ceramic coating was applied in a predetermined amount and uniformly to the surface of exhaust gas passages extending therethrough and whether the ceramic coating is blocking any of the passages. The method includes mounting the substrate in an acoustically sealed structure so as to form a throat communicating a speaker at an entrance end of the coated passages with an empty resonator cavity at an exit end of the coated passages and thereby form a Helmholtz resonator. The speaker is then driven to produce a continuous sound wave through the coated passages into the resonator cavity at a predetermined frequency approximately the natural frequency of the resonator to thereby produce oscillatory sound waves through the coated passages at the same frequency. The substrate is then reversely mounted and the previous step is repeated.

Abstract: A radiator grill is provided with a snap-in plug for engagement into a contoured aperture provided in a bumper. The grill is retained at the rearward end of the bumper by means of retaining hooks. The grill is also provided at its rearward portion with slip ramps which are positioned on the upper side of the bumper so as to cause forward pivoting of the grill that eliminates a gap that may otherwise be created between the grill and the bumper at the forward edge of the grill.

Abstract: A tube and fin heat exchanger is disclosed comprising a pair of tanks, a plurality of tubes of non-circular cross section connected at their ends to tanks, and a plurality of corrugated fin strips each arranged between and extending along the length of adjacent ones of the tubes. Each of the fin strips has a constant corrugation spacing extending along an intermediate and almost the entire length of the tubes and a smaller corrugation spacing extending the remainder of the length of the tubes to their ends so as to provide increased resistance to ballooning of the tubes at their ends by internal pressure.

Abstract: A rubber metal mount for absorbing forces acting substantially in the direction of an axial center line is provided with an end portion in the form of a metal plate on which is arranged a fastening element for the rubber-metal mount in the form of a threaded stud that is displaceable relative to the axial center line without causing any significant distortion or preloading in the rubber-metal mount.

Abstract: In a motor vehicle, the drive unit is suspended on a transverse member resting on the wheel suspension struts of the vehicle. The suspension struts are secured to the vehicle body by means of a suspension mount which includes a damping block. The suspension mount has an inner portion connected with the suspension strut, an intermediate portion connected with the transverse member, and an outer portion connected with the vehicle body. The inner portion, the intermediate portion and the outer portion are joined to each other through a rubber member which is loaded, substantially, in shear.

Abstract: A motor vehicle engine mount is disclosed comprising a core of a solid material placed between two parts made of elastomeric material, each of which is connected to a rigid outer part attached to the engine or the chassis. The core is determined to vibrate at a frequency corresponding to that of the engine and in a direction substantially counter to the vibration of the engine and is shaped relative to the outer parts such that a reduction occurs in the distance separating it from the outer parts in one of the vibration directions, leading to an increase in the spring rate of the mounting arrangement.

Abstract: A valve actuation system is disclosed having a spur wheel which meshes with a crown-wheel segment attached to the valve. For linear increase or decrease in the flow cross section, the toothing of the crown-wheel segment is arranged to produce a multiplication ratio which decreases and/or increases in the direction of opening, i.e., which produces valve opening rates which become smaller and/or larger.

Abstract: Apparatus is disclosed for attaching a flexible annular member to a rigid member using an annular tongue on an annular bead on one of the members that is engageable in an annular groove in an annular bead on the other member, and further using a preformed resilient lock ring that is split so as to have oppositely facing ends and has a C-shaped cross-section with a radially outwardly facing peripheral side so as to be mountable over and then clamp together and hold the beads on the members with their tongue and groove engaged.

Abstract: A fastening device is disclosed comprising a first fastener member adapted to be fixed to a sheath and a second fastener member adapted to be fixed to a support. One of the fastener members has a semi-cylindrical socket and the other fastener member has a cylindrical body adapted to engage the socket and be supported thereby for rotary movement. Axial retention means on the cylindrical body and socket prevent their relative axial movement while detent means also thereon engage with each other upon relative rotary movement therebetween and thereafter yieldingly prevent such relative rotary movement therebetween while holding the cylindrical body in the socket.

Abstract: An accumulator-dehydrator assembly for an air conditioning system is provided with a desiccant canister outlet fitting having an integral particulate filter cage at one end and an integral neck at an opposite end. The cage is insertable through and the neck is received in a flanged outlet opening in a desiccant canister that is received within the assembly's housing. The neck is also received from the interior of this housing in and sealingly engages with the housing's outlet connector. Both the neck and the flange about the canister outlet opening have radial holes which align and receive an exit end of the assembly's pickup tube arranged external of the canister. The neck and the canister outlet opening flange have cooperating angular alignment means that positively align their pickup tube accommodating holes angularly. The filter cage and the interior of the canister have cooperating longitudinal alignment means that positively align the pickup tube accommodating holes longitudinally.

Abstract: A suspension element for the exhaust system components of an internal combustion engine incorporates interengaging resilient rings. However, these rings are not in direct contact with one another. Instead, they extend about an elastic, air-filled spherical member. This spherical member provides for the vibrations generated by the exhaust system being effectively attenuated by the suspension element before being transmitted to the floor of the motor vehicle.

Abstract: An engine mounting arrangement is disclosed having brackets attached to a vehicle body adapted for connection to damping blocks attached to an engine. Each bracket supports two slidable spring-loaded clamping pieces with teeth that coact with teeth of an intermediate piece that is attached to the respective damping block and is adapted to be inserted between the clamping pieces from below.

Abstract: A muffler is disclosed comprising a closed housing having an annular inlet and an annular outlet neck, and the housing having arranged therein a pair of axially extending pipes which are at least partially overlapping one another. One of the pipes is connected to the inlet neck and has a circumferentially arranged passageway to permit the exhaust gases to be directed from the inlet neck to the inside of the housing. The other pipe is connected to the outlet neck and has a circumferentially arranged passageway to permit the exhaust gases to be directed from inside the housing to the outlet neck.

Abstract: A heating and cooling system is disclosed for a motor vehicle powered by a water-cooled internal combustion engine wherein the engine radiator is mounted inside a housing, and the air flowing into the occupant compartment is caused to pass through said radiator. When the engine is hot, the radiator transfers heat to the air stream flowing into the compartment. A heat exchanger is mounted upstream of the radiator and is adapted to heat the air before it passes through the radiator. By virtue of this arrangement, the heat exchanger assists in raising the temperature of the engine cooling water and thus the engine at a rapid pace. The arrangement also provides that warm air for heating the vehicle interior is available shortly after starting of the engine to prevent fogging of the windows prior to engine warm up.

Abstract: A method of using a robot to apply a weatherstrip to a flange extending about an opening in a vehicle body wherein the weatherstrip is coiled on an end effector which in turn unwinds and rolls the weatherstrip onto the flange starting from a predetermined starting position on the flange to a stop position a predetermined distance short of the starting position.The unwound weatherstrip is lifted away from the flange at the stop position and then held and cut-off at a point determined by the above-mentioned predetermined distance so that the weatherstrip being applied to the flange will then abut end-to-end whereafter the cut end of the weatherstrip is retrieved and applied to the flange.

Abstract: In a shutter assembly, individual shutter blades are connected to ribs of an auxiliary frame by way of living-type hinges, so that the living-type hinges form the pivot axes of the shutter blades. Furthermore, an actuating rod is provided, which is also connected by way of living-type hinges to the shutter blades. The auxiliary frame with the shutter blades and the actuating rod are thus combined into one structural unit which can be manufactured in one single operation in a three-part mold. This arrangement enables the shutter assembly to be manufactured at low cost by the injection molding technique so that assembly operations become unnecessary.

Abstract: There is disclosed a catalytic converter substrate formed of two smooth foil strips and one corrugated foil strip arranged and folded together so that alternate folds of each of the smooth foil strips have spaced sides and juxtaposed abutting sides and interleave with those of the other smooth foil strip and so that all of the folds of the corrugated foil strip have spaced sides that sandwich the folds with juxtaposed abutting sides of both the smooth foil strips so as to define passages therebetween and whereby all the strips are adapted to be retained together against telescoping by engaging retaining means at the opposite ends of all of their folds.

Abstract: A swash plate compressor is disclosed having integral plastic ball and shoe parts providing the drive between the opposite sides of the swash plate and the inner ends of double-ended pistons that straddle the plate.

Abstract: A hydraulic-elastomeric mount is disclosed having a multi-function diaphragm that in addition to forming a secondary chamber also serves to provide amplitude control and multiple sealing.