Patent ID: 7874416

Claim:
A vehicle comprising: a gear shift lever; a transmission having a stationary housing and a parking pawl for locking said transmission into a parking gear; a manual shaft that is rotatable in response to movement of said gear shift lever; a detent lever assembly including a detent lever operatively connected to said manual shaft and to an actuator rod, said detent lever being configured for moving said actuator rod to set said parking pawl in response to rotation of said manual shaft, wherein said detent lever has a plurality of detent teeth; and a detent spring assembly adapted to bias said detent lever, said detent spring assembly having: a spring portion with a first and a second end, wherein said first end defines a main opening which receives a stationary member of the detent lever assembly, and said second end which opposes a spring force applied to the first end; a roller assembly having a roller disposed on a cylindrical rolling pin; and a substantially rigid cage portion which is operatively connected to said spring portion at said first end, and which is positioned between said spring portion and said detent lever, the cage portion having a post which extends through said hole in said first end to secure said first end to said cage portion, and further having a pair of side walls each defining a different side hole; wherein said cage portion receives different ends of the cylindrical rolling pin within a respective one of the different side holes to thereby retain said roller assembly between said side walls, and receives the stationary member in a notch between the side walls, to thereby orient an axis of rotation of said roller assembly perpendicularly with respect to one of said plurality of detent teeth.