A gearbox for use in an electric power assisted steering system of the kind in which a motor is connected to a portion of a steering mechanism through the gearbox, comprises a housing, a worm gear carried by a worm shaft and a gear wheel carried by an output shaft, the worm shaft being supported relative to the housing by a tail bearing assembly, in which the bearing assembly is located relative to the gearbox housing by a bearing carrier, the carrier comprising a bearing carrier part which is fixed to the bearing assembly and a reaction part which is fixed to the gearbox housing, the bearing carrier part being connected to the reaction part by at least two connecting elements, the two elements being spaced apart so that they act, in effect, with the bearing carrier part and the reaction part to form a parallelogram linkage that enables the bearing carrier to be relatively free to move relative to the reaction part in one direction whilst being relatively restrained from movement in the two directions orthogonal to that direction.
Gearbox for electric assisted steering apparatus
2020-09-15
Patent
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch