Patent ID: 7930951

Claim:
A rack and pinion steering gear assembly, said assembly comprising: a pinion shaft; a rack operably engaged with said pinion shaft; a housing forming a housing interior, said pinion shaft and said rack being at least partially disposed within said housing interior; a rack bearing, said rack bearing engaged with said rack and disposed opposite said pinion shaft; a biasing assembly operably coupled with said rack bearing and biasing said rack bearing into engagement with said rack along a biasing axis whereby said rack bearing urges said rack into engagement with said pinion shaft; and wherein said biasing assembly comprises: a gross adjustment member securable to said housing at a plurality of axial positions relative to said biasing axis, said gross adjustment member being fixed to said housing at a selected one of said positions during initial assembly of said steering gear assembly; a bearing assembly, said bearing assembly including a bearing member, a first adjustment member and a first biasing member; said bearing member being bearingly coupled with said rack bearing, said first adjustment member being relatively moveably coupled with said bearing member wherein relative movement along said biasing axis between said first adjustment member and said bearing member defines a compliance zone; said compliance zone allowing said bearing member to move in response to dimensional variations in said pinion shaft and said rack during operation of said steering gear assembly; said first biasing member biasing said bearing member along said biasing axis away from said first adjustment member and toward said rack bearing; and an accumulative adjustment assembly operably disposed between said gross adjustment member and said first adjustment member and disposed entirely within said housing interior; said accumulative adjustment assembly having a second biasing member wherein said second biasing member is operably coupled with said first adjustment member and urges said first adjustment member toward said rack bearing along said biasing axis, said second biasing member exerting an effective axial force insufficient to compress said compliance zone; and wherein said first adjustment member is operably coupled with said biasing assembly wherein said first adjustment member is relatively moveable toward said rack bearing in continuously-variable axial movements and axial movement of said first adjustment member away from said rack bearing is inhibited; and said gross adjustment member being threadingly engaged with said housing to thereby fix said gross adjustment member to said housing, and said accumulative adjustment assembly are rotated together with said gross adjustment member as said gross adjustment member is threadingly engaged with said housing, and a threaded member relatively moveably securing said bearing member to said first adjustment member wherein installation of said threaded fastener defines an axial magnitude of said compliance zone.