Splash lubrication system for motor vehicle transmissions
First Claim
1. Method for adjusting the filling level of an oil sump for splash lubricating systems of synchronized motor-car gear-boxes, including:
- transferring a partial amount of the oil from the oil sump in a gear-box housing into an enclosure having an oil receiving cavity, the enclosure and the oil receiving cavity being connected to the housing; and
solely altering the filling-level of the oil sump as a function of the operating temperature in the gear-box housing by transferring the partial amount of oil from the oil sump automatically at low temperatures into the cavity and by retransferring the oil from the cavity at higher temperatures to the oil sump.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A splash lubrication system is provided for motor vehicle transmissions and comprises an oil sump (42) in the bottom portion of a case (30). The case (30) accommodates a transmission shaft (31) provided with gears (34 to 37) which are immersed in the oil at least partly when the said oil sump (42) is filled completely. In order to prevent the synchronizing mechanism from being blocked by cold and, consequently, very viscous oil in the presence of extremely low operating conditions--a condition which could lead to unsynchronized faulty gear shifting operations and, thus, damage to the transmission, the oil sump (42) is connected with a cavity (33) into which oil is drawn from the oil sump (42) under low operating temperature conditions of the transmission. To this end, preferably, an expansion body (38) is arranged in a cavity (33) in a transmission shaft (31) which contracts under cold conditions, and the cavity (33) is connected with the oil sump (42).
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. Method for adjusting the filling level of an oil sump for splash lubricating systems of synchronized motor-car gear-boxes, including:
-
transferring a partial amount of the oil from the oil sump in a gear-box housing into an enclosure having an oil receiving cavity, the enclosure and the oil receiving cavity being connected to the housing; and solely altering the filling-level of the oil sump as a function of the operating temperature in the gear-box housing by transferring the partial amount of oil from the oil sump automatically at low temperatures into the cavity and by retransferring the oil from the cavity at higher temperatures to the oil sump.
-
-
2. Apparatus for adjusting the filling-level of an oil sump of a splash lubricating system of synchronized motor car gear-boxes, comprising:
-
an enclosure having a cavity; means for transferring a partial amount of oil in an oil sump from a gear-box housing into said enclosure having said cavity; and an expansion body in said cavity, said expansion body being variable in volume, and being at least partially composed of a substance which has a large temperature coefficient of expansion so that the transfer and re-transfer, respectively, of the oil is achieved solely by temperature-dependent contraction and expansion, respectively, of the expansion body. - View Dependent Claims (3)
-
-
4. Splash lubrication system for a transmission for motor vehicles comprising:
-
a housing (10;
30), said housing (10;
30) having a bottom portion, and being provided with an oil sump (13;
42) to receive lubricating oil;an enclosure having a cavity, said enclosure being fluidly connected with said housing to permit the transfer of oil to and from said oil sump to and from said cavity; said transmission comprising a transmission shaft (11,
31) and gears (12;
34 to
37) provided on said shaft (11;
31), said gears (12;
34 to
37) being housed in said housing and being partly immersed in said oil when said oil sump (13;
42) is connected with said cavity (15;
33); andmeans for transferring a partial amount of said oil of said oil sump (13;
42) in said gear box housing into said cavity (15;
33) when said transmission operates at an operating temperature below a preset low temperature value; andvariable volume expansion means in said cavity, said expansion means having a large temperature coefficient of expansion so that transfer and re-transfer of the oil between said housing and said enclosure is achieved solely by temperature dependent contraction and expansion of the expansion body. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20)
-
-
18. Splash lubrication system according to claim l6, wherein valves are provided in the channels (53b'"'"') to block the latter when the temperature drops to the low operating temperature.
Specification