A BUILT-IN STOP FOR STEERING GEAR
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IT is common practice to provide a
positive stop on the chassis or the axle for limiting the steering movement, but such a stop does not prevent a careless driver from forcing the wheel and so straining the whole mechanism. A steering gear in which the movement is limited at source forms the subject of patent No. 700,635, from W. Gwilliam, H. Eva ns and Guy Motors, Ltd., all of Fallings Park, Wolverhampton. Stop pins on a rotary member are
easy to design if the total movement be appreciably less than 360°, but a steering column usually has to move through a much greater angle than this. The invention consists of a simple way of applying the same arrangement to a movement of more than one turn. In the drawing, 1
is the steering-wheel boss and 2 the column. The boss is provided with a stop pin (3) which moves in an arcuate slot in a free ring (4). The ring is fitted with a pin (5) engaging similarly in a second ring (6). The arrangement is repeated as often as necessary, always terminating in a fixed ring (7). These pin-and-slot connections being all in series, each one contributes its
quota of 360° to the movement, but finally sets up a limiting stop in both directions The number of rings is, of course, dependent upon the turns required between full locks.