JPH044550B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an attachment structure for a drive cable and an instrument (for example, a speedometer) used in a vehicle such as an automobile.

Conventionally known methods for attaching this type of vehicle instrument drive cable (hereinafter referred to as drive cable) 7' and the instrument 20 are a screw type as shown in FIG. 1A, or an elastic type as shown in FIG. 1B. Protrusion 21 having
It was a one-touch type that connected the meter to the meter 20.

Therefore, when connecting the drive cable 7' and the instrument 20 in a vehicle, as shown in Fig. 2, the instrument 20 is fixed with one hand, and the other hand is used to hold the drive cable 7' through the gap in the instrument panel. The connection requires both hands of the worker, takes a long time to set up, and the work increases the worker's fatigue level. In addition, in recent years, the number of fittings and equipment parts that are attached to the instrument panel has increased, and the remaining space within the instrument panel is extremely narrow, and the conventional method of connecting the instrument panel and drive cable has limited room for the operator to manipulate. The disadvantage is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to connect.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention separates the work of attaching the instrument to the instrument panel and the attachment of the drive cable, that is, fixes the drive cable to the instrument panel in advance, and then inserts the instrument into the instrument panel. The instrument and the drive cable can be connected with just one. The object of the present invention is to provide a one-touch plug-in vehicle instrument drive cable connection structure.

The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 designates a part of the instrument panel for fixing the drive cable, the external shape of which is shown in FIG. 12. Reference numeral 2 denotes a support plate provided on the instrument panel 1 to hold the drive cable, and its external shape is shown in FIG. 3 is a casing of the drive cable; 4 is an elastic grommet formed of rubber or the like and interposed between the drive cable and the instrument panel 1; 5 is a flexible rotating shaft of the drive cable; 6 is fixed to the rotating shaft 5; A resin-molded inner top 7 having a twisted portion a as shown in FIG. 6 at its tip is the outer part of the drive cable, and the casing 3 is fixed to the tip thereof. b
is a bearing part formed in the casing 3 to prevent center runout when the inner top 6 rotates, and a spiral groove (not shown) is formed in the inner diameter part of the bearing part, which also serves as a bushing to prevent oil from rising inside the drive cable. Also serves as. 8 is a flat washer inserted between the outer 7 and the inner top 6, and g is a protrusion provided on the casing 3, which is loosely joined to the claw h of the support plate 2 over half a circumference.

In FIG. 4 showing the structure of the instrument 20 side, 9 is a rotating shaft of the instrument 20 supported by the bearing 10;
Reference numeral 11 is an instrument housing having grooves c and d, and reference numeral 12 is an attachment having projections e and f that fit into grooves c and d of the housing 11. Reference numeral 13 denotes a resin bushing fixed to the rotary shaft 9, and its inner surface is twisted with triangular surfaces as shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the drive cable shown in FIG. 3 and the meter shown in FIG. 4 are connected. Further, an annular groove 41 is formed on the outer periphery of the grommet 4, and by fitting the C-shaped protruding portion 21 provided on the support plate 2 into this groove 41, the grommet 4 and the support plate 2 are connected to each other. is fixed. A stopper part 31 is provided between the protrusion g of the casing 3 and the enlarged connection part at its tip, and the grommet 4 is fitted between the stopper part 31 and the enlarged connection part.

In Fig. 12, the instrument panel 1 has a support plate 2.
A notch 1a is provided for mounting, and this notch 1a has an opening 1b at the top, a pair of recesses 1c and 1d on the left and right, and an arcuate portion 1e at the bottom. As shown in FIG. 13, the tip of the support plate 2 has a pair of locking pieces 22 and 23 that can be elastically deformed in the left-right direction, and has an arcuate stopper part 24 at the bottom. Then, the pair of locking pieces 22 and 23 of the support plate 2 engage with the pair of recesses 1c and 1d formed in the notch 1a of the instrument panel 1 by their elastic force, and the circular arc portion 1 formed in the notch 1a
The support plate 2 is attached to the instrument panel 1 by abutting the stopper portion 24 of the support plate 2 on the e.

The content of the present invention in the above configuration will be explained including the work content. First, an operator inserts and fixes the support plate 2 into the instrument panel 1. Then, the drive cable including the grommet 4 is inserted into the support plate 2 according to the procedure shown by the arrow in FIG. This state is the third
It is a diagram. Here, the protruding portion g of the casing 3 is fitted and fixed with the claw portion h of the support plate 2. Furthermore, the casing 3 is loosely fixed to the support plate 2 via a grommet 4. In other words,
The casing 3 is loosely fixed to the grommet 4 at two points, which prevents the drive cable from being distorted from normal installation due to some external force, although not shown in the drawings.

Next, the operator inserts the meter 20 into the meter panel 1, resulting in the state shown in FIG. 5, and in the process, the drive cable and the meter 20 are connected with one touch as described below. First, the inlet of the casing 3 on the instrument side is shaped like a wrapper, and the outer and inner peripheries of the tip of the attachment 12 attached to the instrument 20 are both tapered, so that the instrument insertion and installation position is offset from the drive cable installation position. Even if the casing 3 and the attachment 12, and the inner top 6 and the attachment 12 do not come into contact and lock, they can be inserted smoothly. It goes without saying that the insertion holes of the inner top 6 and the rotary shaft 9 have conventionally had a square cross-section for transmitting power, but the insertion holes of the inner top 6 and the rotary shaft 9 each have a square cross-section. If the rotational direction phase shifts by 1° to 89°, the square shapes cannot fit together smoothly. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, the tip of the inner top 6 is twisted, and the inner surface of the resin bushing 13 is complicatedly twisted by combining triangular surfaces as shown in FIG. At what phase position is the rotational direction phase of each square cross section of the shaft 9 and the meter 20?
Even if the drive cable is inserted into the drive cable, part of the axial force will generate a circumferential component force that rotates the rotating shaft 9. can be fitted smoothly.

Next, the operator fixes the instrument 20 to the instrument panel by tightening screws or the like, but the clock instrument 20 presses down the drive cable. In other words, housing 11
The grommet 4 presses down on the casing 3 via the attachment 12, and the grommet 4 has elasticity, so it bends accordingly. This results in the state shown in FIG.
In other words, the play between the meter 20 and the drive cable is absorbed by the grommet 4, thereby preventing play. Furthermore, the grommet 4 can absorb the misalignment of the instrument 20 and the drive cable not only in the axial direction but also in the radial direction (horizontal and vertical directions). Further, at this time, the protrusion g of the casing 3 and the claw part h of the support plate 2 are in a disengaged state, which helps the casing 3 of the drive cable to fit more flexibly to the instrument position.

Note that the tip end shape of the inner top 6 may be a spirally twisted portion as shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment of the present invention,
In the first embodiment, instead of using the resin bushing 13, the inlet is made into a flap shape, as shown in FIG. A resin key 14 having a twist formed by combining triangular surfaces is used, and the key 14 is inserted and fixed into the rotating shaft 9 in advance before connecting the drive cable.

Note that in each of the embodiments described above, the instrument housing 11 and the attachment 12 are configured separately;
2 may be integrally molded.

In addition, in each of the above-described embodiments, a twisted portion is formed on both the inner top 6 and the resin bush 13 or the resin key 14 fixed to the rotating shaft 9, but even if only one of the twisted portions is formed, it is possible to When the rotary shaft 9 and the rotary shaft 6 are connected to each other, it is possible to automatically match the rotational phases of the rotary shaft 9 and the rotary shaft 6 with respect to the rotational phase difference. However, if twisted portions are formed on both sides, all rotational phase differences can be automatically matched.

By using the above-mentioned component configuration, when the drive cable is fixed to the instrument panel in advance and the rotating shaft is inserted into the inner top, the torsion part reduces the axial force generated during insertion. When the part generates a component force in the circumferential direction,
Since the rotational phases of the rotating shaft and the inner top can be automatically matched, there is an excellent effect that the instrument and the drive cable can be easily connected.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1A and 1B are partial longitudinal cross-sectional views showing two examples of conventional structures, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram for explaining the connection method in the conventional structure, and FIGS. 3 to 5 are partial longitudinal sectional views showing two examples of the conventional structure. A vertical cross-sectional view of the drive cable side, a vertical cross-sectional view of the meter side, and a vertical cross-sectional view of the overall configuration in the connected state before the meter is fixed, showing a first embodiment, FIGS. 6A to C
are a front view, a right side view, and a perspective view showing the tip structure of the inner top in the above embodiment, and FIGS. 7A-
D shows the resin bushing in the first embodiment, FIG. 7A is its front view, and FIG. 7B is the resin bushing in the seventh embodiment.
Figure A: A vertical cross-sectional view along the line A-A' shown in Figure 7C.
is its rear view, and FIG. 7D is the B- shown in FIG. 7A.
8 is a vertical sectional view of the overall configuration after fixing the instrument in the above embodiment; FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the tip structure of the inner top; FIG. 10 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line B'; FIG. 11A is a vertical cross-sectional view of the entire configuration after the instrument is fixed, showing the second embodiment of the structure of the present invention;
11A is a front view thereof, FIG. 11B is a partial vertical sectional view taken along the line C-C' shown in FIG. 11A, and FIG. Figure C is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the main part configuration along line D-D' shown in Figure 11A, Figure 12 is a perspective view showing the main part configuration of the instrument panel in the first embodiment, and Figure 13 is the above-mentioned FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a support plate in the first embodiment. 1... Instrument panel, 2... Support plate, 3... Casing, 4... Grommet, 5... Rotating shaft, 6...
... Inner top, 7 ... Outer, 9 ... Rotating shaft, 12 ... Attachment, 13 ... Resin bushing, 14 ... Resin shaft, 20 ... Instrument,
a...Twisted part, b...Bearing part, g...Protrusion part,
h...Claw part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A casing that is fixed to the outer tip of the drive cable and has a lug-shaped tip; an elastic body disposed on the outer periphery of the casing; and a casing that is fitted to the outer periphery of the casing via the elastic body, a support plate for attaching the drive cable to the plate in advance; an inner top connected to the rotating shaft of the drive cable; and a support plate provided on at least one side of the inner top and the rotating shaft of the instrument, the rotating shaft and the inner top being connected to each other. a twisted portion a that causes a part of the axial force to generate a circumferential component force when the casing is inserted, and automatically matches the rotational direction phases of the two; A drive cable mounting structure for a vehicle instrument, comprising an attachment having a tapered part formed on the inner and outer peripheries to guide the inner top, and a bearing part integrally formed with the casing to prevent center runout of the inner top.