Patent ID: 6915671

Claim:
Apparatus for locking a motor-vehicle steering shaft against rotation comprising: a locking bolt which has a longitudinal axis and which is axially reciprocable in a housing between a locked position and release position by a to-and-fro rotatable control element; said locking bolt being fixable in the locked position by means of a spring-loaded securing element which is displaceably supported in said housing and which through its spring loading enters a lateral recess of said locking bolt and which, in order to move against its spring-loading out of said recess, cooperates with said control element of the locking bolt; said control element being rotatably supported in the housing for rotation about an axis which extends parallel to, or coincides with, the longitudinal axis of the locking bolt; said securing element comprising a pin having a longitudinal axis and mounted for axial displacement in the housing; said longitudinal axis of said pin extending in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the locking bolt; said pin engaging under the action of its spring load a control surface of the control element; said control surface extending around the axis of rotation of the control element; wherein the securing pin cooperates by means of a sensing element with the control surface at the control element; and wherein an arm of a sealing lid of an assembly aperture of the housing engages said sensing element in such a manner that when the sealing lid is removed from the assembly aperture, the sensing element is disengaged from the securing pin and the securing pin is driven by its spring loading as far as against the end of the recess of the locking bolt into a position whereat the sensing element no longer is engageable with the securing pin, said securing pin itself being inaccessible.