Piston and connecting rod

Claim 1

For use in a reciprocating piston machine, a piston and connecting rod assembly comprising: a unitary piston having a closed end, a depending skirt connected with said closed end and defining therewith an open ended cavity, a pair of opposed bearing bosses formed integral with said skirt and including a pair of transversely aligned bearing openings, and a slot in one of said bosses extending between the bearing opening of said one boss and the open end of said skirt, said slot having a width substantially less than the diameter of the bearing opening with which it connects; and a connecting rod having one end integrally formed in a tee shape and including a crossbar portion and a leg portion, the crossbar portion of the tee shaped rod comprising a piston pin portion having journals at its outer ends received in the bearing openings and in direct engagement with the bearing bosses of said piston, the leg portion of the tee shaped rod adjacent the piston pin portion being substantially narrower in a direction transverse thereto than the diameter of the largest of said journals and narrower than said slot so as to permit the rod to pass through the slot in the piston bearing boss during assembly and disassembly of the piston and connecting rod by relative movement along the axis of the piston bearing openings, the bearing opening of said slotted boss being of larger diameter than the other bearing opening and the connecting rod crossbar journal received in said larger bearing opening being of correspondingly larger diameter than the other crossbar journal to provide for ease of assembly of the connecting rod and piston and to somewhat offset the loss of bearing surface in the slotted boss due to said slot.