Drive system with resilient yieldable biased actuator shaft for electric rear view mirror

Claim 1

In a remote control system for a vehicle mirror having a mirror mounted for pivotable movement relative to a motor housing, electric motor means secured to the housing and having a worm gear on an output shaft thereof, which shaft engages an externally threaded pinion gear rotatably mounted on the motor housing, and wherein the pinion gear is also provided with internal threads forming an internal diameter to serve as a nut, the rotation of which by the worm gear causes a nonrotatable mirror-engaging actuator shaft having one end in threaded engagement with the internal threads of the nut to move longitudinally to reposition the mirror, the improvement in said actuator shaft which comprises: said actuator shaft being made of a yieldable, resilient material; a slot extending from said one end of said actuator shaft to divide said shaft one end into first and second resilient end portions; threads on said first end portion of said shaft; and means resiliently biasing said first end portion into engagement with the interior threads of said pinion gear to allow override of said threads at the end of travel but otherwise to provide firm engagement between said threads on said first end portion and the interior threads of said pinion gears for accurate driving of said actuator shaft; wherein said second end portion is unthreaded and has means to co-act with the interior of said pinion gear to increase the biasing force on said first end portion against said interior threads of said pinion gear.