Hydraulic damper

Claim 1

In a hydraulic damper including generally vertically disposed coaxial inner and outer tubes, a piston working in said inner tube and partitioning the interior thereof into first and second liquid chambers, a piston rod secured to said piston and extending through said first liquid chamber to the outside of the damper through upper ends of said inner and outer tubes, a rod guide supporting the upper ends of said inner and outer tubes and slidably guiding said piston rod, a base cap supporting the lower ends of said inner and outer tubes, a reservoir chamber defined between said inner and outer tubes and containing therein liquid and gas, and a bottom valve mechanism mounted on said lower end of said inner tube for controlling liquid flow between said second liquid chamber and said reservoir chamber, the improvement wherein said bottom valve mechanism comprises: a valve seat mounted on said lower end of said inner tube; a valve body having an orifice passage; a spring biasing said valve body toward said valve seat; and a valve guide guiding the movement of said valve body toward and away from said valve seat, said valve guide comprising a generally inverted U-shaped member having a lower end fitted on said valve seat, said U-shaped member including an axially extending imperforate skirt, a plurality of axially extending and circumferentially spaced indentations formed in the outer circumference to said skirt, said indentations forming on the inner circumference of said skirt a plurality of axially extending and circumferentially spaced guide surfaces in guiding contact with the outer circumferential surface of said valve body, said indentations further defining circumferentially therebetween a plurality of axially extending and circumferentially spaced liquid passages between said inner circumference of said skirt and said outer circumferential surface of said valve body, and said U-shaped member further including an upper base portion having therethrough a plurality of openings opening generally into respective said liquid passages.