Patent ID: 8505676

Claim:
An electric power steering apparatus comprising: a rack shaft that has a rack tooth at an end side of the rack shaft and has a ball screw portion at another end side of the rack shaft; a gear housing in which the rack shaft is inserted so as to be movable in an axial direction; a pinion shaft which has a pinion tooth that meshes with the rack tooth, and which is journaled to the gear housing so as to be rotatable about an axis that intersects the rack shaft; a ball nut that meshes with the ball screw portion; a driven pulley that rotates together with the ball nut, and that is rotatably journaled to the gear housing; an electric motor; a driving pulley that rotates about an axis parallel to the driven pulley, and that is linked to a drive shaft of the electric motor so as to be rotated; and a timing belt wrapped around the driven pulley and the driving pulley, wherein the electric motor is attached to the gear housing, and wherein the gear housing is provided with a pulley space in which the driven pulley, the driving pulley and the timing belt are placed so as to be operatable, and which communicates with an outside of the gear housing, and wherein the gear housing has a motor-side hole into which the drive shaft of the electric motor is inserted, and wherein a pulley-side hole into which the driving pulley is inserted into the pulley space is provided at a position in the gear housing which is opposite the motor-side hole across the pulley space.