Lift saddle for transmission jack

[57] ABSTRACT

A saddle for jacks handling car transmissions in confined spaces beneath the vehicle. The saddle has a rectangular plate with four arms slidable transversely to its edges. Upstanding blades are provided on the arms for supporting the load, the arms being secured in their adjusted position by bolt-and-slot connections.

Claims, 3 Drawing Figures

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PATENTED NOY 2 Ο 1973

3» Γ C3,¢293

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3,773,293

LIFT SADDLE FOR TRANSMISSION JACK

BACKGROUND AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to jacks for handling irregularly-shaped workpieces such as the transmissions of passenger cars. The lift saddles for transmissions must have a considerable range of adjustment in order to accommodate various sizes and shapes of units. Moreover, a transmission is often located in a tightly confined space, adjacent the car frame, exhaust system or other components and to avoid contact with these components the lifting saddle must be practically as small as the transmission oil pan.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a lift saddle for transmissions or the like which is capable of handling a wide variety of shapes and sizes of transmissions but yet is sufficiently small to reach between adjacent parts to engage the transmission oil pan.

According to the invention, a lift saddle is provided comprising a rectangular base plate with four arms slidably mounted on the plate for independent movement transversely to its edges. Means are provided for independently fixing the position of each arm, and means are carried by the arms for engaging the object to be lifted.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the arms are at midportions of the plate edges and are secured in their adjusted position by bolt-and-slot connections. Outer portions of the arms carry upstanding blades preferably formed as transmission-engaging saddles. Two of these blades are secured to the ends of their arms and extend in both directions, so that these arms may be reversed and used as guards when it is desired to support the transmission directly on the plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a portion of a lifting jack showing the transmission saddle of this invention mounted thereon;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front elevational view of the lift saddle taken in the direction of the arrow 2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the lift saddle taken along the line 3—3 of FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The lift saddle is generally indicated at 11 and is mounted on a conventional lifting jack such as that shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,062,500, having a pair of lift members 12 and 13 and a tilt pad 14 mounted thereon. Saddle 11 comprises a base plate 15 of rectangular shape, in this case square, having a pair of front and rear edges 16 and 17 and side edges 18 and 19. Base plate 15 is secured to pad 14 by four bolts 21 passing through asymmetrically spaced holes in pad 14 and tubular spacers 22 welded to the bottom of plate 15, the bolts being threaded into holes 23 in plate 15. The asymmetrical pattern of the bolts will insure that the lift saddle is not mounted incorrectly with respect to pad 14.

A pair of front and rear arms 24 and 25 are mounted beneath plate 15 midway along edges 16 and 17 respectively. These arms are of flat shape, having oppositely inclined inner edges 26 and 27 and right-angled outer edges 28 and 29. The arms are provided with elongated slots 31 and 32 through which extend bolts 33 and 34 threaded into holes in plate 15. The bolts have washers 35 and 36 respectively which will clamp the arms in their adjusted positions against the underside of plate 15 when the bolts are tightened. A pair of saddleshaped blades 37 and 38 are secured to the outer edges 28 and 29 of these arms. The shape of these blades is best seen in FIG. 2, the upper ends of the blades being wider than the lower ends and having recesses 39 for engagement of the transmission. About three-fourths of the height of these blades projects above their respective arms and the remainder extends below for reasons described later.

A pair of side arms 41 and 42 are located slightly forwardly of the midpoints of plate edges 18 and 19. These arms are also of elongated shape, having inclined inner edges 43 and 44 respectively and right-angled outer edges 45 and 46. The arms are positioned beneath path 15 but are spaced therefrom by approximately the thickness of arms 24 and 25. The spacing means comprises a pair of U-shaped rods 47 secured to the plate underside. A pair of transmission-engaging saddleshaped blades 48 and 49 are secured near the outer ends of arms 41 and 42 and extend upwardly therefrom, these blades having recessed portions 51. Arms 41 and 42 are provided with elongated slots 52 and 53, and bolts 54 with washers 55 extend through the slots and are threaded into plate 15 to secure the arms in their adjusted positions. Bolts 54 are located within the confines of U-shaped spacers 47 so that arms 41 and 42 will be secured firmly against the spacers.

The lengths of the slots in the four arms are such that in their innermost positions the two pairs of arms will overlap, as seen in FIG. 3. However, the arms are capable of a wide variety of adjustments to accommodate different sizes and shapes of transmissions.

A pair of holes 56 and 57 are provided in arms 41 and 42 respectively outwardly blades 48 and 49. A two-part safety chain 58, 59 is attached to these holes for holding a transmission or other part (not shown) carried by the saddle.

In operation, the arms of saddle 11 will ordinarily be mounted so that the recesses of all four blades are open upwardly to engage a transmission or similar workpiece. The front and rear arms 24 and 25 may contact the transmission at its oil pan flange. However, these arms can be inverted by removing and replacing bolts 33 and 34 so that the short portions of blades 37 and 38 extend upwardly. This would be done for example if it is desired to support a transmission directly on plate 15 rather than on the saddle-shaped blades. Side arms 41 and 42 in this case would be used solely as anchors for safety chain 58, 59. None of the blades would then be supporting the transmission but merely acting as guards to prevent it from sliding off plate 15.

It will be observed that tubular spacers 22 are located so as to allow free adjusting movement of the arms before being clamped by their bolts and washers. Except for the portions of arms 41 and 42 occupied by the safety chain holes, the outer dimensions of the entire unit 11 will be controlled by the positions of its transmission engaging blades, so that interference with surrounding components of the vehicle will be avoided.