Patent ID: 7954395

Claim:
A steering apparatus comprising: a housing; a pinion shaft on an outer circumference of which pinion gear teeth are formed; a bearing which supports rotatably the pinion shaft on the housing; and a rack shaft having rack gear teeth which mesh with the pinion gear teeth and adapted to reciprocate relative to the housing in response to rotation of the pinion shaft to thereby steer road wheels, wherein the pinion shaft comprises a bending facilitating portion which is easiest to bend when subjected to an external force in a bending direction in a location lying closer to an outer end portion side than the bearing, and a suppressing unit which suppresses, through contact with the pinion shaft at a contact point, further bending of the pinion shaft in a location lying closer to the contact point when the pinion shaft is subjected to an external force in a bending direction tending to bend the pinion shaft; wherein the suppressing unit is a support member which is mounted on the housing and which has a predetermined space relative to the pinion shaft in a direction which intersects an axis at right angles in the location lying closer to the outer end portion side than the bearing.