Abstract: A method of assembling a motor vehicle differential of the type including a cup-shaped carrier having an open end, differential pinions and side gears in the carrier, and a unitary plastic separator defining thrust bearings between the carrier and the differential pinions and side gears. A pair of inner bosses are formed on the carrier, each having a spherical bearing seat. A module, consisting of the differential pinions and the side gears in operative relationship within the plastic separator, is preassembled remote from the carrier. The module is advanced into the carrier through the open end of the latter with the differential pinions angularly indexed relative to the bosses for clearance. When the center of the module coincides with a geometric center of the carrier, the module is rotated relative to the carrier to align the differential pinions with the spherical bearing seats.

Abstract: A contour hardening apparatus for flat steel work pieces, such as gears, having convoluted surfaces around their circumferences, the apparatus including an annular inductor housing, a mandrel in the center of the inductor housing, and air bearing rotatably mounting the work piece on the mandrel, an air nozzle on the inductor housing aimed at the convoluted surfaces and operative in an ON condition to direct a jet of compressed air against the convoluted surfaces to develop on the work piece a first turning moment in a first direction to rotate the work piece in the first direction during heating, an oil manifold on the inductor housing supplied with oil under pressure and including a first plurality of oil nozzles in the plane of the work piece each oriented to direct a jet of oil at the convoluted surfaces to develop on the work piece a second turning moment opposite the first turning moment, and means to supply the oil manifold with oil under pressure when the air nozzle is in an OFF condition.

Abstract: An arrangement to mask direct view of the discharge end of a turbine through an exhaust duct extending downstream from the turbine. The turbine has an annular outlet. Two annular rows of fixed vanes are mounted in the outlet, one immediately upstream of the other. The two sets of vanes are reversely cambered so that the overall turning effect is insignificant and they are so located that each set of vanes blocks sight of the turbine through the gaps between the vanes of the other set.

Abstract: An automotive power steering gear has a pair of permanent magnet driving discs supported on a housing of the steering gear and continuously rotated in opposite directions corresponding to right and left turn rotation of an output shaft of the steering gear. A soft, magnetically permeable driving disc is supported on the housing between the driving discs for rotation and for bodily shiftable movement toward and away from respective ones of the driving discs. The driven disc is drivingly connected to the output shaft of the steering gear. When steering effort is applied at a steering wheel connected to an input shaft of the steering gear, a cam and follower apparatus bodily shifts the driven disc toward the one of the driving discs rotating in the direction corresponding to the direction of the applied effort. The rotating magnetic flux field of the driving disc intercepts the driven disc and induces thereon a magnetic steering assist torque in the direction of the applied effort.

Abstract: A vibration damper of a rotating shaft includes a floating housing attached to the shaft for radial vibratory displacement as a unit therewith, a plurality of cylindrical bores in the floating housing parallel to the axis of rotation of the shaft, and a plurality of smaller cylindrical impactors in the cylindrical bores. Each impactor is a metal sleeve having a smaller cylindrical tungsten rod therein with a damping medium around the rod. When the shaft experiences radial vibratory displacement, the sleeves impact the bores. When the sleeves impact the bores, the damping medium is squeezed from between the tungsten rods and the sleeves for vibration damping energy absorption in one mode. In addition, the tungsten rods impact the bores through the sleeves and initiate local plastic deformation of the bores the sleeves and the rods for energy absorption in another mode.

Abstract: A modular fuel sender in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle includes a reservoir, a fuel pump in the reservoir, a low pressure conduit conducting hot return fuel back to the reservoir, a secondary pump in the reservoir for pumping new fuel from the tank into the reservoir, and a control which effects a recirculation mode of secondary pump operation when the new fuel level in the fuel tank is above a predetermined low level and a scavenge mode of secondary pump operation when the new fuel level in the reservoir is below the predetermined low level. In the recirculation mode, the secondary pump recirculates reservoir fuel to avoid overflowing hot fuel into the fuel tank. In the scavenge mode, the secondary pump continuously maintains a partial vacuum in a screen in the fuel tank regardless of the fuel level in the reservoir to maximize new fuel scavenged from the fuel tank before fuel starvation occurs.

Abstract: A shut off valve has a valve lock that snaps onto a cylindric of the valve body and locks the shut-off valve in its open position by retaining the cross bar of a rotatable T-shaped handle in a parallel position in a housing portion of the valve lock. The valve lock also snaps onto the cylindrical end section to retain the cross bar in a perpendicular position at the end of the housing portion to lock the shut-off valve in its closed position.

Abstract: An economical to manufacture and simple to install and remove gas charged fluid pressure accumulator including a cup-shaped accumulator body with an integral dome at one end and an integral in-turned annular lip at the other end, a piston slidably disposed in the accumulator body, and an external screw thread on the accumulator body. The accumulator body is screwed into a threaded counterbore until the annular lip bears against a bottom wall of the counterbore with a fluid port of the manifold inside of the projection of the lip on the bottom wall. A seal ring in a groove in the bottom wall of the counterbore bears against the annular lip to seal the chamber of the accumulator defined between the bottom wall and the piston.

Abstract: An open-vane impeller for a regenerative turbine fuel pump for motor vehicles, the impeller including a hub having an outer cylindrical ring, a first stage of open-vane impeller vanes extending radially out from the outer ring, and a second stage of open-vane impeller vanes extending radially out from the outer ring in side-by-side and phase shifted relationship to the first stage of open-vane impeller vanes.

Abstract: A coated porous metal panel includes a first outer surface on one side of the panel, a second outer surface on the other side of the panel, a plurality of laterally offset discharge and inlet pores in respective ones of the first and the second outer surfaces, an internal chamber in the panel communicating with each of the inlet and discharge pores so that tortuous gas flow paths are defined through the porous metal panel, and a shield lamina mechanically clamped against the second outer surface. The shield lamina has shield pores aligned with the inlet pores to permit gas flow into the inlet pores. A plurality of extraction passages are formed in the panel between the internal chamber and the second outer surface and directly behind each of the discharge pores. When the coating material is sprayed on the first outer surface with the shield lamina not attached to the panel, surplus coating entering the discharge pores passes through the extraction passages for collection behind the panel.

Abstract: A power steering gear with a hydraulic valve and a detent mechanism allows simultaneous hydraulic and mechanical balancing. The hydraulic valve is rotatively separate from the detent mechanism to allow separate balancing. The hydraulic valve is integral with an input member. The detent mechanism is integral with a stub shaft which is concentric with but rotatively independent of the input member. The stub shaft and the input member are rotatively fixed to each other when both the hydraulic valve and the detent mechanism are balanced.

Abstract: An automotive power steering gear having a four-way, open-center valve defining inlet branch passages between an inlet port of the steering gear and opposite working chambers of a steering assist fluid motor and further defining discharge branch passages between the opposite fluid motor working chambers and a discharge port of the steering gear. Lands and grooves on a spool and a sleeve of the valve define variable orifices in the inlet and discharge branch passages. The steering gear further includes bypass passages around each of the variable orifices in the inlet branch passages and check valves in the bypass passages which open the passages only when the pressure in the corresponding one of the fluid motor working chambers exceeds the pressure at the inlet port. When one or the other of the check valves is open, fluid recirculates from one of the fluid motor working chambers to the other.

Abstract: A mounting for a ceramic scroll on a metal engine block of a gas turbine engine includes a first ceramic ring and a pair of cross key connections between the first ceramic ring, the ceramic scroll, and the engine block. The cross key connections support the scroll on the engine block independent of relative radial thermal growth and for bodily movement toward an annular mounting shoulder on the engine. The scroll has an uninterrupted annular shoulder facing the mounting shoulder on the engine block. A second ceramic ring is captured between mounting shoulder and the uninterrupted shoulder on the scroll when the latter is bodily shifted toward the mouting shoulder to define a gas seal between the scroll and the engine block.

Abstract: An automotive fuel system including a reservoir in a fuel tank of the vehicle and a fuel pump in the reservoir. Surplus fuel from a fuel injection system is returned to and confined in the reservoir. An inside screen is disposed between an inlet of the fuel pump and an inlet port from the fuel tank into the reservoir. The inside screen has a porous wall permeable to liquid fuel and impermeable to vapor when partially submerged in liquid fuel. An outside screen surrounds the inlet port in the fuel tank and has a porous wall permeable to liquid fuel and impermeable to vapor when partially submerged in liquid fuel. The porous wall of the inside and outside screens cooperate in sustaining suction at the fuel pump inlet when the reservoir is depleted.

Abstract: A motor vehicle steering wheel and method, the steering wheel including a circular rim made from a hollow, seam-welded steel tube and a plurality of spokes made from solid steel rods. The seam-welded tube is indented in the center thereof perpendicular to the plane of the rim to form a plurality of integral troughs elongated in the circumferential direction of the rim and each flanked on opposite sides by a pair of integral resistance welding projections having inverted U-shape cross sections for structural rigidity. The spokes are arrayed across respective ones of the troughs in point contact with the corresponding ones of the resistance welding projections. The spokes are pressed against the resistance welding projections while electric current passes between the two to resistance weld the spokes to the hollow metal tube at the resistance welding projections.

Abstract: A method of attaching a flat annular contact plate of a horn ring assembly to a flat annular flange of plastic substrate such as a turn signal canceling cam includes the steps of forming deformable tabs on the contact plate perpendicular to the plane thereof, forming slots in the substrate adjacent an inner edge if the annular flange, forming integral plastic shrouds with pockets therein adjacent the slots and perpendicular to the plane of the flange, seating the contact plate agaianst the flange with the deformable tabs projecting through the slots into the pockets on the shrouds, and bending the tabs against the flange to clamp the contact plate to the flange. The pockets hold the shrouds over the bent tabs and prevent spurious electrical contact with the tabs.

Abstract: An anti-theft steering shaft lock on an automotive steering column including a first clutch element on a rotatable steering shaft and a second clutch element on a stationary part of the steering column. The first clutch element has notches accessible in the direction of the centerline of the steering shaft and the second clutch element has axial lugs for engagement in the notches. The second clutch element is mounted on the stationary part of the steering column for bodily movement in the direction of the centerline of the steering shaft between locked and unlocked positions relative to the first clutch element. An annular control element is rotatably supported on the stationary part of the steering column around the second clutch element and has a circumferential cam slot which receives a radial lug on the second clutch element such that rotation of the control element effects bodily shiftable movement of the second clutch element between its locked and unlocked positions.

Abstract: An automotive fuel pump has a tubular shell, a pump group in the shell, an end housing in the shell, and an electric motor in the shell including an armature shaft. The armature shaft has an integral annular first spherical shoulder engaging a seat of a first bearing on a partition wall of the pump group. The first bearing reacts axial thrust and radial bearing forces between the partition wall and the armature shaft and supports the armature shaft on the partition wall for rotation about the centerline of the shaft and for universal pivotal movement about the center of the first spherical shoulder. The armature shaft has an integral second spherical shoulder received in a cylindrical bearing seat of a second bearing on the end housing.

Abstract: A method of aligning front wheels of a vehicle so that the steering wheel of the vehicle is centered when the vehicle is driven including the steps of aligning the front wheels in centered positions corresponding to straight ahead driving while the steering wheel is immobilized in a centered position likewise corresponding to straight-ahead driving and then turning the steering wheel from a first off-center position through its centered position in a first direction and from a second off-center position through its centered position in an opposite second direction with at least a fraction of the weight of the vehicle on the front wheels.

Abstract: A mounting for an electric fuel pump on a rigid metal return fuel conduit in a fuel tank of an automobile includes a plastic support having a center body with a stepped bore therein for receiving the lower end of the return fuel conduit and a pair of integral flexible arms extending in opposite directions from the center body. The return fuel conduit has an annular shoulder which engages a shoulder on the center body to limit penetration of the return fuel conduit into the bore. The return fuel conduit also has a plurality of lugs thereon permanently deformed into notches in the center body to capture the center body between the lugs and the shoulder on the return fuel conduit. The flexible arms have wrapped positions around the fuel pump and an annular rubber isolator thereon clamping the fuel pump and the isolator to the center body.