Patent ID: 8601901

Claim:
A telescopic steering column apparatus comprising: a cylindrical inner column; an outer column that is of a cylindrical shape with a diameter greater than that of the inner column and that is externally fitted on the inner column so as to be able to be displaced in the axial direction; a nipped bracket that is fixed on a lower surface or upper surface of a portion of the outer column that is externally fitted on the inner column and that has a widthwise dimension greater than the outer diameter of the outer column; a nipping bracket that has a pair of supporting plate sections that nip the nipped bracket from both sides thereof in the widthwise direction, and that is supported on a vehicle body; a rod-shaped member that is inserted through through-holes provided in mutually matching portions on the nipped bracket and the nipping bracket, in the widthwise direction of the nipped bracket; a pair of pressing sections that are provided on portions that oppose, on both end sections of the rod-shaped member, to the outer side surface of both of the supporting plate sections; an engagement/disengagement device that increases or reduces the distance between both of the pressing sections as the rod-shaped member is rotated in the torsional direction, to thereby engage or disengage the inner side surface of both of the supporting plate sections and both of the side surfaces of the nipped bracket; a slit that is formed in a portion of the outer column opposing to the intermediate section of the rod-shaped member, and that is long in the axial direction of the outer column; and a pressing member that is provided in a portion of the intermediate section of the rod-shaped member that opposes to the outer column, and that presses, radially inward, the outer circumferential surface of the outer column as the rod-shaped member is rotated; wherein a distance between the rotational center axis of the rod-shaped member and the outer circumferential surface of a portion of the intermediate section of the rod-shaped member that opposes to the outer circumferential surface of the outer column, is unequal about the rotational direction of the rod-shaped member; the pressing member is arranged between the intermediate section of the rod-shaped member and the outer column; and as the rod-shaped member is rotated in a direction of reducing the distance between the pair of pressing sections, the outer circumferential surface of the intermediate section of the rod-shaped member presses the pressing member toward a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the outer column where the slit is formed.