It is well known in the art that a shift device is provided in an automobile which has an automatic transmission so that a driver can change a shift position of the transmission.
A shift device for an automatic transmission of this kind is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,221. Such a shift device is shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. The shift device 101 includes a base plate 102 which is fixed to a floor panel (not shown) of the automobile, a position plate 103 which is a steel plate that has steps 104 corresponding to shift positions on the lower side of the plate 103, a shift lever 105 moving pivotably about a support 106 held by base plate 102, a position pin 107 moving up and down along the shaft 108 of the shift lever 105 corresponding to push and release of a knob 109 at the top of shift lever 105, and an indicator box 120 which is made of plastic and which covers the lower part of shift lever 105. Position pin 107 rests on one of steps 104 of position plate 103 after the driver pushes knob 109, moves lever 105, changes the shift position and releases knob 109. As shown in FIG. 12, on the upper face of indicator box 120 is provided a shift position indicator 121 so that it indicates the position in which shift lever 105 is being held.
However, as the position plate 103 and the indicator box 120 are fixed to the base plate 102 respectively in a manufacturing assembly line, it may happen that an error in the relative position between the indicator box 120 and the position plate 103 becomes so large that the shift lever 105 does not rest accurately with respect to the position indicator 121 when the position pin 107 stops at one of the steps 104 of the position plate 103. This problem may be corrected after assembly by repairing position plate 103 or by adjusting the indicator box 120. This, however, is not easy because the seats of the automobile are arranged next to the indicator box 120 on both sides, and there is only limited space left between the indicator box 120 and those seats.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds