Patent ID: 7210692

Claim:
In a trailing beam suspension for a vehicle comprising a hanger bracket adapted to be mounted to a vehicle frame rail, a trailing beam pivotally mounted at one end to the hanger bracket through a pivot bolt and an adjustment slot in the hanger bracket so that the position of the beam with respect to the hanger bracket is selectively adjustable in a fore-and-aft direction to align an axle mounted to the trailing beam, the improvement comprising: a manually adjustable, threadably actuated drive mechanism mounted between the hanger bracket and the pivot bolt for incrementally adjusting the position of the pivot bolt in the slot to thereby adjust the beam with respect to the hanger bracket, wherein the drive mechanism includes a drive shaft that is substantially orthogonal to an axis of the pivot bolt and is substantially offset therefrom; the pivot bolt is mounted to at least one pivot arm, the at least one pivot arm is pivotally mounted at one end to the hanger bracket for pivotal movement about an axis spaced from the adjustment slot and the drive mechanism is mounted to the at least one pivot arm at a location spaced from the adjustment slot and from the axis of the at least one pivot arm, whereby pivotal movement of the at least one pivot arm selectively adjusts the relative position of the pivot bolt in the adjustment slot; and the drive shaft is connected to the at least one pivot arm to adjustably move the at least one pivot arm as the shaft is driven wherein the drive shaft is journaled in the hanger bracket and is threadably mounted to the at least one pivot arm through a yoke wherein the drive shaft is journaled in the hanger bracket and is threadably mounted to the at least one pivot arm through a yoke.