Pivot ball assembly

Claim 1

A pivot ball assembly for use in swivelly attaching a bulldozer blade to a support arm, comprising a support arm having an opening extending therethrough, an assembled pivot ball unit disposed in said opening and having a spherically-shaped inner race member and a flat-ended outer race member with said members being nested together for swivel movement therebetween and with said inner race member having a central axial opening, a pair of spaced-apart ears affixable to the bulldozer blade and having aligned openings therethrough, a threaded attachment pin disposed in said aligned openings and extending between said ears and through said inner race opening, said inner race member having opposite end surfaces respectively spaced from said ears, a plurality of spacing members, each spacing member disposed in abutment with one of said inner race end surfaces and the one of said ears nearest thereto, in addition to said spacing members spacer members, each spacer member disposed respectively between each said spacing member and said attachement pin for limiting the clamping force of said attachment pin on said ears and on said assembled pivot or ball unit, said support arm having a first shoulder surface surrounding said opening therein, said outer race member having its axially opposite end surfaces flat and parallel to each other and with one of said opposite end surfaces being disposed in abutment on said first shoulder surface of said support arm for restricting movement of said outer race member on said support arm and in the direction from said outer race member toward said one of said opposite end surfaces, said support arm having a second shoulder surface disposed countersunk along the plane of the other of said end surfaces of said outer race member and adjacent thereto, a retainer ring having a planar end surface disposed on and spanning said second shoulder surface and said outer race member other end surface for securing said outer race member on said support arm, said support arm having a plurality of holes extending therethrough in the direction perpendicular to the plane defined by each of said shoulder surfaces and intersecting said second shoulder surface, said retainer ring having a plurality of threaded holes axially aligned with said support arm holes, and screws extending through said holes in said support arm and threaded into said retainer ring holes for releasably holding said retainer ring on said support arm.