Internal-combustion engine arrangement with improved carburetor mounting
This invention relates to internal-combustion engines, and particularly to the mounting of a carburetor between an engine cylinder and an air cleaner casing which provide the only significant, stress-transmitting connection between the carburetor and the structure supporting the cylinder and air cleaner casing, such as the frame of a motorcycle. 
     The afore-described mounting of the carburetor is convenient in motorcycles because of the small space required. However, the liquid fuel in the float chamber of the carburetor tends to the shaken into a froth if vibration at high frequency is transmitted from the cylinder to the carburetor. It has been attempted to avoid vibration of the carburetor by resilient mountings and damping arrangements, but they are not always effective in preventing oscillation of the carburetor and its contents at the natural frequency of the carburetor assembly. 
     It is the primary object of the invention to provide an engine arrangement in which a carburetor is mounted practically exclusively on an engine cylinder and an air cleaner casing, but is unable to oscillate at an amplitude sufficient to cause frothing or foaming of the liquid fuel in the float chamber. 
     With this object and others in view, as will hereinafter become apparent, the invention provides an internal-combustion engine arrangement in which the carburetor is fastened to a cylinder of the engine by a thin, resilient hose connecting the fuel-mixture outlet port of the carburetor to the intake port of the engine. Other fastening elements fasten the carburetor much more rigidly to the casing of an associated air cleaner than the carburetor is fastened to the cylinder by the hose. 
    
    
     Other features, additional objects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will readily be appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when considered in connection with the appended drawing in which: 
     FIG. 1 shows only as much of an otherwise conventional motorcycle in side elevation as is needed for an understanding of the invention; and 
     FIG. 2 illustrates the device of FIG. 1 in fragmentary side-elevational section on a larger scale. 
    
    
     Referring initially to FIG. 1, there is shown only one tube 17 of an otherwise conventional motorcycle frame on which an air cleaner casing 2 is fixedly mounted by means of straps and lugs 18. The casing 2 which encloses an air filter, conventional and not itself shown, is connected to a carburetor 1 by a molded, tubular connector 5 of oil resistant synthetic rubber, the connector 5 being attached to the casing 2 and the carburetor 1 by pipe clamps 14, 13. Similar clamps 11, 12 attach sheet-metal bellows 15 to the fuel-mixture outlet port of the carburetor 1 and the intake port of the single cylinder 19 of the illustrated engine. A transmission casing 16 obscures portions of the cylinder 19 not directly relevant to this invention and the fuel supply line and control elements conventionally connected to the carburetor 1. 
     As is better seen in FIG. 2, the molded rubber connector 5 has a wider orifice portion clamped to a tubular outlet of the casing 2 by the pipe clamp 14 and communicating with the interior of the casing, and a narrower orifice portion of reduced flow section which receives therein the tubular inlet port 6 of the carburetor 1 to which it is sealed by the pipe clamp 13. The annular shoulder portion of the connector 5 which separates the casing outlet from the carburetor port 6 in the direction of air flow has a circumferential part 8 adjacent the float chamber 9 in the carburetor 1 whose wall thickness is many times greater than the wall thickness in the diametrically opposite circumferential part 7, and the non-illustrated parts of the shoulder portion gradually increase in wall thickness from the part 7 to the part 8. 
     The fuel-mixture outlet port 10 of the carburetor 1 is conformingly received in a thin, resilient hose 4 of oil-resistant synthetic rubber which also coaxially receives the tubular portion 3 of the fuel-mixture inlet port of the cylinder 19. The external diameters of the ports 10, 3 are equal and not significantly greater than the inner diameter of the hose 4 when in the relaxed condition. Because of these dimensional relationships, the hose 4 does not tend to enter the gap axially separating the ports 3, 10. The afore-mentioned bellows 15 are radially interposed between the pipe clamps 11, 12 and the hose 4, and thereby protect the thin hose 4 against injury when the clamps are tightened. The bellows also protect the hose against mechanical damage by external forces and against detrimental environmental effects, such as those of ozone and ultraviolet light. 
     The connector 5 and the hose 4 together with the bellows 15 provide the sole, significant, stress-transmitting connection between the carburetor and the supporting motorcycle frame represented in the drawing only by the tube 17. The carburetor 1 is fastened to the casing 2, and thereby to the vehicle frame, much more rigidly than it is fastened to the cylinder 19 by the hose 4 and the equally thin and resilient bellows 15. The casing 2, fixedly mounted on the vehicle frame, thus secures the carburetor 1 against vibration transmitted by the cylinder 19, particularly at high engine speed. The heavy wall 8 of the connector 5 particularly protects the float member 9 against oscillations which may otherwise cause the fuel in the chamber to froth and foam. The thin metal tube supplying liquid fuel to the carburetor 1, not itself shown, and the non-illustrated Bowden cables which connect the movable elements of the carburetor 1 to manual and automatic controls do not materially contribute to the fastening of the carburetor 1 to the vehicle frame. They can neither induce oscillation of the carburetor, nor could they contribute significant resistance to such oscillation if caused by the events in the cylinder 19. 
     It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates only to a preferred embodiment of the invention, and that it is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for the purpose of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention set forth in the appended claims.