Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Edward A Hantle

Orrin A Woodward

Christopher J Mahoney

A motor vehicle fuel pump including a tubular shell, an electric motor in the shell having an armature shaft rotatable about a longitudinal centerline of the shell, and a pump assembly at one end of the shell having a first rotatable element therein and a second element therein between the first rotatable element and the electric motor. A barrel-shaped driver in a cavity between the first and second rotatable elements includes drive lugs on each longitudinal end projecting into corresponding drive sockets in the first and second rotatable elements. Each drive lug has a rounded edge engaging a side of the corresponding drive socket such that the driver is effectively decoupled from the first and second rotatable elements except with respect to force reactions establishing torsional force couples on the rotatable elements in planes perpendicular to the longitudinal centerline of the shell. The armature shaft has a distal end defining a drive tang received in a correspondingly shaped cavity in the barrel-shaped driver.

Fuel pump for motor vehicle

A magnet assembly in an electric motor of a motor vehicle fuel pump includes a tubular ferromagnetic flux carrier closely received in a shell of the fuel pump between a pump at one end of the shell and an end housing at the other end, a pair of arc-shaped permanent magnets on the flux carrier having a non-magnetic state as formed and a magnetic state after exposure to magnetic flux, an elongated arc-shaped plastic locator between the magnets, and a spring clip opposite the locator urging the magnets into magnet pockets in the locator. The plastic locator is the same length as the flux carrier and conforms to the curvature thereof. Each magnet pocket has a pair of short lateral sides which capture the magnets in their non-magnetic state and establish the locations thereof relative the ends of the flux carrier. The plastic locator is closely received between edges of an arc-shaped boss on the end housing assembly to effect accurate angular location of carbon brushes on the end housing assembly relative to the magnets.

Magnet assembly for electric fuel pump

A modular fuel sender including a reservoir in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle, an electric fuel pump in the reservoir, and a jet pump for aspirating fuel into the reservoir. The electric fuel pump includes a regenerative turbine pump having a pump channel around the periphery of an impeller and a bleed orifice between an inlet and a discharge of the pump channel for bleeding a mixture of fuel and vapor from the pump channel. The bleed orifice is connected a nozzle in the jet pump. The mixture of fuel and vapor bled from the pump channel issues as a jet stream from the jet pump nozzle for aspirating fuel into the reservoir.

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Caro, MI, United States of America

Edward A Hantle