Cooling mechanism of a clutch cover assembly

Claim 1

A cooling mechanism in a clutch cover assembly including a clutch cover body of dish-like shape provided with a central aperture of a large diameter and a diaphragm spring having a radially outer annular spring portion pinched by a pair of wire rings to the clutch cover body, said diaphragm spring including a plurality of radial tongues which extend radially inwardly from said annular spring portion to the inner periphery of said annular spring portion with slits having enlarged openings at the radial outer end therebetween, characterized by that some of said tongues, spaced circumferentially from each other, are recessed at an edge of the tongue at the slit between said tongue and the adjacent tongue, except for the portion of said edge adjacent to said opening, to reduce the width thereof, and a vane member having a vane support formed integrally with said vane mounted on each of said circumferentially spaced tongues with said vane support in the recess at the tongue edge and fixing said vane member to said tongues, said vane member having a vane projecting out from said support and the slit between the recessed vane and the contiguous adjacent vane for feeding air into said slit and ventilation ports connecting to an internal space in said clutch cover assembly at radially outer portions of said clutch cover body for discharging air fed into said clutch cover through said slits by said vane projections.