Bearing assembly for a ball and socket joint

Claim 1

In a joint assembly with a socket member having an opening therethrough with a substantially cylindrical recess therein, a stud member with a ball received in said recess and a stud projecting therefrom through said opening to the exterior of said socket member, a seal member of a flexible material engaging both said stud and said socket member and constructed and arranged to provide a seal therebetween, and a pair of bearing rings substantially coaxially received in said recess and constructed and arranged to provide a bearing assembly surrounding and having a spherical surface bearing on a relatively large equatorial area of said ball between the polar regions thereof with interdigitating recesses and tongues overlapping the equator of said ball and having a sufficient thickness to substantially fill the space between said recess and said ball, the improvement comprising said seal member also being constructed and arranged to define in cooperation with said socket member a lubricant reservoir adjacent said ball, said recesses and tongues of said bearing rings being constructed and arranged to define in cooperation with said ball a staggered lubricant passage extending around and opening onto the equatorial region of said ball, at least the one of said bearing rings adjacent said seal member having at least two circumferentially spaced grooves extending generally axially across said ring, opening onto said ball, and connecting said staggered passage with said lubricant reservoir defined at least in part by said seal member such that a lubricant received in said lubricant reservoir can be supplied to the interface of said ball with said spherical surface of said bearing assembly through said generally axially extending grooves and said staggered lubricant passage, one of said bearing rings having an annular recess at an axially outer end and a radially outer surface thereof for receiving a load ring, a load ring of a compressible and resilient material received in said annular recess and extending generally axially beyond the outer end of said ring containing said annular recess, and means carried by said socket member and compressing said load ring into said annular recess so as to yieldably urge said bearing rings toward each other and into firm engagement with said ball whereby the joint assembly has wear take-up compensation.