According to the US Patent & Trademark Office, the invention aims to “reduce the size and weight of an engine body and improve the mountability and maintainability of transmitting rods in a valve train for an OHV engine having a crankshaft, a crankcase for rotatably supporting the crankshaft, a camshaft incorporated in the crankcase, cylinder heads connected to the crankcase, engine valves operably provided in the cylinder heads, and the transmitting rods for transmitting a valve operating force due to the rotation of the camshaft to the engine valves.”
An abstract of the invention, released by the Patent Office, said: “The transmitting rods as pull rods are arranged on one side of cylinder barrels. One end portion of each transmitting rod is formed with an engaging portion disengageably engaged with a hook portion of a mating member.”
It added: “An engine body or a guide member, fixed to the engine body, is provided with a guide portion for guiding the engaging portion to the hook portion of the mating member.”
The inventors were issued US Patent Number 7,004,132 on February 28 2006.
The patent has been assigned to Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Tokyo.
