US-12623764-B2 - Outboard motor and marine vessel

US12623764B2US 12623764 B2US12623764 B2US 12623764B2US-12623764-B2

Abstract

An outboard motor includes a lower portion including a propeller shaft, an upper portion including a drive source to provide a rotational force to rotate the propeller shaft, and a support portion to rotatably support the lower portion relative to the upper portion about a steering shaft and rotate integrally with the lower portion. The upper portion includes a water pump assembly to suck up water from the lower portion through the support portion and supply the water to the drive source. When viewed along a shaft line direction of the steering shaft, the water pump assembly overlaps the lower portion at a first rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion, and at least a portion of the water pump assembly does not overlap the lower portion at a second rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion.

Inventors

Kimitaka Saruwatari
Yu WAKAMIZU
Yoshihiko Okabe
Hiroki Koga

Assignees

YAMAHA HATSUDOKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230803
Priority Date: 20220823

Claims (10)

1 . An outboard motor comprising: a lower portion including a propeller shaft; an upper portion including a drive source to provide a rotational force to rotate the propeller shaft; and a support portion to rotatably support the lower portion relative to the upper portion about a steering shaft and rotate integrally with the lower portion; wherein the upper portion includes a water pump assembly to suck up water from the lower portion through the support portion and supply the water to the drive source; and when viewed along a shaft line direction of the steering shaft, the water pump assembly overlaps the lower portion at a first rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion; and when viewed along the shaft line direction of the steering shaft, at least a portion of the water pump assembly does not overlap the lower portion at a second rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion.
2 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein the water pump assembly is driven by a pump drive shaft rotated by a rotational force from the drive source; and the water pump assembly is located at an end portion of the pump drive shaft.
3 . The outboard motor according to claim 2 , wherein an output shaft of the drive source and the pump drive shaft are concentric; and a gear drive shaft to drive a gear to rotate the propeller shaft is concentric with the steering shaft and is not concentric with the pump drive shaft.
4 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein when viewed along the shaft line direction of the steering shaft, an entirety of the water pump assembly does not overlap the lower portion at the second rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion.
5 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein a portion of the water pump assembly is always exposed to an outside of the outboard motor.
6 . The outboard motor according to claim 5 , wherein the always exposed portion of the water pump assembly is a housing portion of the outboard motor.
7 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein the water pump assembly includes a receiving port to receive water sucked up from the lower portion to the support portion.
8 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein the first rotation position of the lower portion is a straight steering position of the outboard motor when traveling straight ahead.
9 . The outboard motor according to claim 1 , wherein the second rotation position of the lower portion is a maximum steering position of the outboard motor to the left or to the right.
10 . A marine vessel comprising: the outboard motor according to claim 1 .

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-132473 filed on Aug. 23, 2022. The entire contents of this application are hereby incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an outboard motor and a marine vessel. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an outboard motor, a water pump, which sucks up water for cooling a drive source (an engine or the like) and supplies it to the drive source, is generally disposed inside an outboard motor main body. Therefore, it is not easy to perform maintenance such as repairing or replacing the water pump. Furthermore, in outboard motors, there is known a configuration in which an upper portion is not movable in a left-right direction, and a lower portion is movable in the left-right direction relative to the upper portion to thereby enable steering (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 4617376). Even in an outboard motor having such a configuration, it is desirable to enhance maintainability of the water pump. On the other hand, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (kokai) No. 2014-40120 discloses an outboard motor in which a drive shaft for driving a propeller shaft and a drive shaft for driving a water pump are separate shafts. In the outboard motor disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (kokai) No. 2014-40120, the water pump is disposed at an end portion of the drive shaft that drives the water pump. However, Japanese Patent No. 4617376 does not describe the arrangement of the water pump. In addition, in the outboard motor disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4617376, since the water pump cannot be accessed without removing other parts covering it, the maintainability is not high. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide outboard motors and marine vessels that are each able to enhance maintainability of a water pump assembly. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an outboard motor includes a lower portion including a propeller shaft, an upper portion including a drive source to provide a rotational force to rotate the propeller shaft, and a support portion to rotatably support the lower portion relative to the upper portion about a steering shaft and rotate integrally with the lower portion. The upper portion includes a water pump assembly to suck up water from the lower portion through the support portion and supply the water to the drive source. When viewed along a shaft line direction of the steering shaft, the water pump assembly overlaps the lower portion at a first rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion. When viewed along the shaft line direction of the steering shaft, at least a portion of the water pump assembly does not overlap the lower portion at a second rotation position of the lower portion with respect to the upper portion. According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, an outboard motor includes a propeller shaft, a drive source to provide a rotational force to rotate the propeller shaft, and a water pump assembly to suck up water and supply the water to the drive source. A portion of the water pump assembly is always exposed to an outside of the outboard motor. According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a marine vessel includes the outboard motor described above. According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, in a case that the lower portion is located at the second rotation position with respect to the upper portion when viewed along the shaft line direction of the steering shaft, at least a portion of the water pump assembly does not overlap the lower portion. Therefore, access to the water pump assembly is facilitated, and work such as maintenance is facilitated. As a result, it is possible to enhance the maintainability of the water pump assembly. The above and other elements, features, steps, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a marine vessel to which an outboard motor according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a schematic left side view of the outboard motor according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a principal portion of a main drive mechanism to drive a water pump assembly and a propeller. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a steering mechanism and its surroundings. FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a lower portion of the outboard motor in a posture in which the marine vessel is navigating, when viewed from below. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embod