Abstract: A position control apparatus for an adjustable motor vehicle steering column including a clamp having a first jaw element and a second jaw element shiftable axially relative to each other, a control lever pivotable through an angular stroke between a clamping position and a releasing position, and means for converting pivotal movement of the control lever to a first axial stroke of the first jaw element and to an opposite second axial stroke of the second jaw element so that the total relative axial stroke between the first and the second jaw elements is the sum of the first and the second axial strokes.

Abstract: A motor vehicle steering column including a stationary support, a moveable support on which a steering wheel is rotatably mounted, and a position control apparatus which achieves both positive retention of the position of the moveable support and substantially infinite positional adjustability. The position control apparatus includes a gate on the stationary support, a stack of thin plates on the moveable support which moves back and forth with the moveable support in front of the gate, and a slide on the stationary support which moves a segment of the stack of thin plates partially into the gate to immobilize the moveable support relative to the stationary support.

Abstract: A connection between a shaft and a hub includes a straight bore in the hub, a plunger bore in the hub intersecting the straight bore, a straight end on the shaft matching the straight bore in the hub, a longitudinal notch in the straight end of the shaft which faces and cooperates with the plunger bore in defining a plunger chamber between the shaft and the hub, a plunger moveable back and forth in the plunger bore, and a spring urging the plunger toward the shaft. A hub side of the plunger chamber defined by the plunger bore converges with a shaft side of plunger chamber defined by the longitudinal notch. The spring biases an enlarged head of the plunger toward the apex of the plunger chamber.

Abstract: A bushing between a big diameter end of a flexible boot and a tulip housing of a constant velocity universal joint. The tulip housing has a plurality of longitudinal drive channels each open at an open end of the tulip housing. Drive bearings on a trunnion on the end of a shaft are bodily shiftable in the drive channels and accommodate stroking and angulation of the shaft relative to the tulip housing. The bushing has an integral boss aligned with the open end of each drive channel. Each boss has a pair of channel segments aligned with planar sides of the drive channel which segments define extensions of the drive channel. The channel extensions receive the drive bearings if the bearings become dislodged from their drive channels during installation of the universal joint on a vehicle.

Abstract: An adjustable motor vehicle steering column including a mast jacket moveable between a plurality of positions and a position control apparatus including a stationary bracket, a moveable bracket attached to the mast jacket parallel to the stationary bracket, a manually actuated primary clamp on the stationary bracket operative when closed to squeeze together the moveable and stationary brackets for frictional retention of the position of the mast jacket and when open to release the stationary and moveable brackets for adjustment of the position of the mast jacket, and a secondary clamp which automatically increases the clamping force on the stationary and moveable brackets in response to the onset of relative sliding movement between the stationary and moveable brackets in the closed position of the primary clamp.

Abstract: A non-stroking, constant velocity universal joint including a cup-shaped outer joint element having internal ball grooves, an inner joint element having external ball grooves, a cage between the inner and outer joint elements coacting with spherical inner and outer walls of the joint elements and having a plurality of ball apertures in register with the ball grooves, and a plurality of bearing balls in the ball apertures and ball grooves. A characterizing BCD/BD ratio greater than 3.5 is achieved in the constant velocity universal joint by providing notches on opposite sides of partitions on the outer joint element between the internal grooves from an open end of the outer joint element to the center of the inner spherical wall. The notches reduce the effective width of the partitions, which otherwise would exceed the width of the ball apertures in the cage due to the high BCD/BD ratio, to less than the width of the ball apertures.

Abstract: An intermediate steering shaft for a motor vehicle steering system including a polygonal tubular shaft, a polygonal solid shaft telescopically slidably disposed in the tubular shaft, and a twist lock for clamping a side of the solid shaft against a side of the tubular shaft to eliminate angular lash between the solid and tubular shafts. The twist lock includes a sleeve rotatably supported on the tubular shaft, a window in the tubular shaft, a plug in the window having an end bearing against a side of the solid shaft, a cantilever spring on the plug, and an actuator on the sleeve. In an open position of the twist lock, the actuator is remote from the cantilever spring and the solid and tubular shafts are freely telescopically slidable relative to each other. The sleeve is rotatable to effect a closed position of the twist lock in which the actuator flexes the cantilever spring to bias the end of the plug against the solid shaft and, consequently, a side of the solid shaft against a side of the tubular shaft.

Abstract: An open-vane regenerative turbine pump in an electric fuel pump operating submerged in fuel in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle. The regenerative turbine pump includes an open-vane impeller having paddle-like vanes extending radially out from a ring-shaped body of the impeller, an annular groove in a housing of the pump defining a pump channel around the periphery of the impeller and the vanes, a stripper on the pump housing fitting close around the impeller between an inlet port of the pump channel and a discharge port of the pump channel, a pair of radial vapor ports on opposite sides of the impeller at an inside diameter of the annular pump channel, and a pair of steps on opposite sidewalls of the pump channel sweeping downstream from an outside diameter of the pump channel to the inside diameter thereof at downstream sides of corresponding ones of the radial vapor ports.

Abstract: A motor vehicle steering wheel having a horn switch assembly including a module mounting plate on the steering wheel, a pair of horn contact plates attached to the module mounting plate in plug-in fashion, an occupant restraint module including a module base plate, and a plurality of electrically insulating plastic retainers. Each of the plastic retainers has a plurality of short legs received in keyhole slots in the module base plate and a plurality of long legs received in keyhole slots in the horn contact plates. When the retainers are twisted to locked positions, hooks on the short legs clamp the retainers to the module base plate. In the locked positions of the plastic retainers, the long legs cooperate with the keyhole slots in the horn contact plates in supporting the module base plate on the horn contact plates for in and out movement through a horn sounding stroke. Springs nested in the plastic retainers urge relative separation between the module base plate and the horn contact plates.

Abstract: A tuner hose assembly for a motor vehicle power steering system including a flexible hose, a first flexible tuner tube inside the flexible hose having an upstream end connected to a pump, and a second flexible tuner tube inside the flexible hose having a downstream end connected to a power steering gear. A downstream end of the first flexible tuner tube is longitudinally separated from an upstream end of the second flexible tuner tube by a wave interference gap which terminates where an inner wall of the flexible hose is clamped against the upstream end of the second flexible tuner tube. The length of the second flexible tuner tube is selected, i.e. "tuned", to attenuate higher order pump fluid-borne noise and simulates a rigid metal tube of a prior tuner hose assembly having greater overall length.

Abstract: A stroking constant velocity universal joint including a tulip housing having three longitudinal drive channels therein and a spider having three radial trunnions reaching into the drive channels. A cylindrical drive roller is disposed in each drive channel and has a radial bore therein with an inner convex surface around a cylindrical bearing race on the corresponding radial trunnion. A full complement of needle bearings is disposed in the clearance between each cylindrical bearing race and the corresponding inner convex surface. A pair of annular washers are mounted on each radial trunnion at opposite ends of the bearing race thereon. A counterbore in a side of each washer facing the corresponding drive roller has a diameter less than the minimum diameter of the inner convex surface in the drive roller and overlaps an end of the full complement of needle bearings to hold the needle bearings closer to the cylindrical bearing race than the inner convex surface of the drive roller.

Abstract: A motor vehicle steering column including a tubular lower mast jacket anchored on a vehicle body, a tubular upper mast jacket telescoped inside the tubular lower mast jacket, a plurality of steel spheres interference fitted in an annulus defined an overlap between the mast jackets, and a plastic ball sleeve in the annulus having pockets loosely receiving respective ones of the steel spheres. The ball sleeve has a plurality of notches in an edge thereof exposed through an outboard end of the lower mast jacket. An anti-rotation bracket is welded to a stationary mounting bracket attached to the lower mast jacket and includes a plurality of tangs which project through the outboard end of the lower mast jacket into respective ones of the notches in the ball sleeve whereby rotation of the ball sleeve about a longitudinal centerline of the steering column is positively foreclosed.

Abstract: A variable effort power steering gear including a control valve substantially as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,801, an electromagnetic apparatus substantially as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,898 for varying the effective centering force of a torsion bar of the control valve, and a support means for a tubular spool shaft of the steering gear relative to a pinion head of the steering gear which affords the spool shaft a degree of freedom relative to the pinion head perpendicular to a lateral centerline defined by a pair of radially oriented pins connecting a valve body of the control valve to the pinion head to prevent binding between the valve body and a valve spool on the spool shaft.

Abstract: In an elastic seal 6 for sealing a part passing through a motor vehicle body opening 3, e.g., a steering gear 2 or a steering column of a motor vehicle, a sealing lip 6 connected to a holding part 8 is designed as a hollow bead 5 whose free end 7 is fixed in a detachable manner to the holding part 8.

Abstract: A position control apparatus for a raked steering column including a stationary bracket having a pair of vertical legs on opposite sides of the steering column, a spacer on the steering column between the legs of the stationary bracket, and a clamp on the steering column for squeezing the legs of the stationary bracket against the spacer. The clamp includes a long bolt spanning the legs of the stationary bracket, a nut on the bolt, a one-way clutch between a head of the bolt and the stationary bracket permitting rotation of the bolt in only a tension-increasing direction, and a snap-on operating lever rotatable as a unit with the nut. After assembly on a vehicle, the clamp afforded by the bolt can be adjusted without changing the terminal positions of the lever by rotating the head of the bolt in a tension increasing direction while the operating lever is maintained in a clamped terminal position corresponding to maximum bolt tension between the vertical legs of the stationary bracket.

Abstract: A vibration isolating mounting for an electric fuel pump on a plastic retainer of a reservoir in a motor vehicle fuel tank includes a tubular wall on the plastic retainer and a plurality of elastic tubes squeezed between the tubular wall and the fuel pump to support the fuel pump on the tubular wall in radial static equilibrium. In a first preferred embodiment, the elastic tubes are formed integrally with an elastic sleeve fitted over the fuel pump. In a second preferred embodiment, each of the elastic tubes has a pair of diametrically opposite integral radial webs closely received in vertical slots in the tubular wall and in a tubular inner retainer around the fuel pump.

Abstract: A motor vehicle power steering gear having a spool shaft connected to a steering wheel, a pinion head connected to a steered wheel, a torsion bar between the spool shaft and the pinion head, a control valve for regulating a hydraulic steering assist boost pressure in response to rotation of the spool shaft from an on-center position relative to the pinion head against a restoring force of the torsion bar, and a quiet preload apparatus including a C-shaped spring around the spool shaft having a pair of resilient jaws, a drive pin on the spool shaft clamped with a preload between the resilient jaws, and a cushioned abutment on the pinion head clamped with the preload between the resilient jaws.

Abstract: A fuel cap tether apparatus on a motor vehicle having a body panel with an access opening or port therein, a fuel tube including a neck behind the access opening, a fuel door mounted on the vehicle for pivotal movement between open and closed positions exposing and concealing, respectively, the access opening, and a fuel cap closing the fuel tube neck and removable therefrom in response to twisting of the fuel cap relative to the fuel tube neck. The fuel cap tether apparatus includes a string-like flexible tether having a first end rigidly connected to the vehicle and a second end connected to the fuel cap such that the latter is rotatable relative to the tether and a hook on the fuel door disposed laterally outboard of the body panel surrounding the fuel tube access opening when the fuel door is in its open position. After the fuel cap is removed, the tether is hung in the hook and the fuel cap released.

Abstract: A motor vehicle power steering gear having a spool shaft connected to a steering wheel, a pinion head connected to a steered wheel, a torsion bar between the spool shaft and the pinion head, a valve for regulating a hydraulic steering assist boost pressure in response to rotation of the spool shaft from an on-center position relative to the pinion head against a restoring force of the torsion bar, and a quiet preload apparatus including a C-shaped spring around the spool shaft having a pair of resilient jaws, a drive pin on the spool shaft clamped with a preload between the resilient jaws, and a cushioned abutment on the pinion head clamped with the preload between the resilient jaws. The cushioned abutment includes a pair of radial cantilever springs which flex upon engagement with corresponding ones of the resilient jaws during forced oscillation of the pinion head back and forth through the on-center relative position of the spool shaft to minimize audible noise associated with such engagements.

Abstract: A position control apparatus for an adjustable motor vehicle steering column including a clamp having a first jaw element and a second jaw element shiftable axially relative to each other, a control lever pivotable through an angular stroke in opening and closing directions, a primary cam means for converting pivotal movement of the control lever in the closing direction to a uniform axial stroke of the first jaw element relative to the second jaw element, and a secondary cam means for converting pivotal movement of the control lever in the opening direction to a snap-action axial stroke of the first jaw element relative to the second jaw element at a terminal end of the angular stroke of the control lever in the opening direction.