Lash adjuster with follower body retainer

Claim 1

An integral valve actuator member and hydraulic lash adjuster assembly including a valve actuator member having a stepped blind socket bore extending from one surface thereof so as to define an internal cylindrical adjuster guide wall next adjacent to said one surface, an enlarged wall defining a reservoir adapted to be supplied with hydraulic fluid under pressure and, an abutment shoulder interconnecting said walls; a hydraulic lash adjuster having a cylindrical body slidably received in said adjuster guide wall with one end thereof loosely received in said reservoir, said body having an annular groove on its outer peripheral surface next adjacent to said one end that is defined by spaced apart sidewalls and an interconnecting lower arcuate base wall, one of said sidewalls next adjacent to said one end defining a transverse shoulder that extends at substantially right angles to the longitudinal axis of said body and the other one of said sidewalls forming an acute angle with said transverse shoulder; and, an annular, normally flat, ring-like retainer of deformable compliant material operatively positioned in said annular groove in said body, said retainer having an outside diameter greater than the internal diameter of said adjuster guide wall and an inside diameter complementary to the outside diameter of said base wall, said retainer being adapted to be temporarily deformed into a frustoconical configuration during insertion of said body of said hydraulic lash adjuster and said retainer into said adjuster guide wall and to then return to its normal flat configuration whereby it can then function so that opposite sides thereof will abut against said transverse shoulder and said abutment shoulder.