Inventors:
Tony Michael Dodak - Birch Run MI
Assignee:
General Motors Corporation - Detroit MI
International Classification:
B62D 508
Abstract:
A power steering gear including a spool shaft, a pinion head, a torsion bar between the spool shaft and the pinion head, and a rotary detent which resists twisting of the torsion bar including an annular first ball seat rotatable as a unit with a pinion head end of the torsion bar, an annular second ball seat facing the first ball seat, a plurality of detent notches in the first and second ball seats facing each other in pairs, a plurality of detent balls between the facing pairs of detent notches, a plain cylindrical sleeve around the torsion bar rigidly connected at a first end thereof to the second ball seat, a pair of radial abutments on the torsion bar near a spool shaft end thereof, and a pair of cantilever springs at a second end of the cylindrical sleeve having lateral deflection strokes perpendicular to a longitudinal centerline of the torsion bar and ramps which resiliently capture therebetween the radial abutments. The ramps induce longitudinal thrust reactions between radial abutments and the cantilever springs proportional to the lateral deflection of the latter which bias the second ball seat toward the first ball seat.
