Vehicle door locking system

Claim 1

In a vehicle door locking device including a housing, an elongate lock actuating slide mounted for longitudinal reciprocatory movement along a fixed path within said housing between a locked position and are unlocked position, manually operable means for shifting said slide between said locked and unlocked position, crank means mounted in said housing at one side of said slide for rotation about a fixed axis normal to said fixed path and having a relatively small diameter pin means projecting toward said slide at fixed radial distance from said axis, a pair of stop members longitudinally and transversely offset from each other fixedly mounted on and projecting from said slide member into the path of rotation of said pin means about said axis, the longitudinal spacing of said stop means being less than the radial distance between said axis and said pin means and the transverse offset between said stop means being greater than the diameter of said pin means, unidirectional rotary drive means operable to drive said crank means about said axis between first and second parked positions 180° apart from each other wherein said slide may be manually shifted between said locked and unlocked positions without interference between said pin means and said stop means, said pin means being engageable with one of said stop means during rotation of said crank means between said parked positions to shift said slide between its locked and unlocked positions; the improvement wherein said drive means comprises a rotary member coupled to said crank means; brake means engageable with said rotary member to apply a predetermined braking force resisting rotation of said rotary member, and brake actuating means for applying said brake means when said crank means is within a predetermined rotative displacement from either of said parked positions and for releasing said brake means at all other rotary portions of said crank means.