Protective bellows

摘要

A protective bellows (28) is disclosed for protecting the axially movable rod (18) of a steering mechanism which has an angularly movable rod end (22). The bellows has a fixing collar (30) attached to the end of a casing (17) from which the steering rod (18) axially extends, and another fixing collar (32) clamped to the rod end (22). Bellows turns (28A...28N) extend between these fixing collars (30,32) but are interrupted by an integral substantially cylindrical skirt portion (34) which is sized to make contact with the outside of the joint (26) connecting the rod end (22) to the steering rod (18). The skirt portion (34) ensures that the bellows turns are substantially undistorted by large angular movement of the rod end (22). Adjacent bellows turns (e.g. 28A,28B) have different cross-sectional sizes so that their peaks and troughs have different diameters. This reduces the compressive forces acting between adjacent turns when the bellows is compressed by sliding of the steering rod (18). <IMAGE>