Walbro Corporation

James A Herndon

Matthew L Werner

Ronald H Roche

Kenneth J Cotton

John S Stark

To seal an electrical wire and prevent fluid flow therethrough, individual strands of the wire are deformed and bonded together to provide a short segment of essentially solid wire without any gaps or flow paths through this segment. Desirably, the solid wire segment may be provided at the point in the wire where the wire passes through a wall of a sealed container, such as a fuel tank, to prevent fluid leakage out of the fuel tank through the wire. In the preferred embodiment, the individual strands of the wire are deformed and bonded together by ultrasonic welding of a section of the wire having its insulation removed. Other methods, such as coining, and laser or electron beam welding can be used to provide the essentially solid wire segment which prevents fluid leakage through the wire. Desirably, the method can be carried out by simply stripping the insulation from the desired wire segment and then performing the desired method of deforming and bonding the strands together, without having to separate the individual strands of wire and provide solder between them, and is therefore less time consuming and less costly to perform.

Connector and method of sealing electrical wire against fluid leakage

A method and apparatus are provided for synchronizing an event of an internal combustion engine at least in part as a function of the load on the engine. Desirably, the ignition timing of the engine may be controlled as a function of the load on the engine. Preferably, the system and apparatus utilize existing engine sensors to provide the information needed to determine the load on the engine. Also preferably, the system and apparatus provide the load determination to other systems such as a fuel injection system to improve the timing of the injection event of the system.

Load determination for an internal combustion engine

A capacitor discharge type ignition system for an internal combustion engine has a secondary charge coil mounted on a ferromagnetic core adjacent to a primary charge coil and an ignition coil, and means for selectively providing current from a battery to the secondary charge coil to increase the charging of a capacitor with the fly back voltage of the secondary charge coil when the current supplied to it from the battery is interrupted or terminated to increase the charge stored by the capacitor at low engine speeds and thereby facilitate starting an engine at very low engine speeds. The battery provides additional energy necessary to provide ignition and starting of the engine at very low engine speeds and can also be used to provide power for other functions, such as to electric starting of the engine, or to power other auxiliary features of the machine powered by the engine. Advantageously, the secondary charge coil is not regulated and excess power discharged from the secondary charge coil is directed to the battery to recharge the battery and maximize its life.

Low speed ignition system

A liquid propane fuel storage and delivery system for a vehicle engine with a fluid handling component module removably top-mounted on an appropriate vehicle-mounted pressurized liquid propane fuel storage tank. The module includes: (1) a fuel tank 80% stop-fill subsystem that automatically opens and closes the tank fill port to control tank fuel fill; (2) a hydrostatic back-check valve to prevent reverse fuel flow from the tank to atmosphere via the fill port; (3) an excess fuel bypass return check valve that maintains a predetermined amount of pressure in the fuel line as required to achieve acceptable engine performance; (4) a return check bypass valve that bypasses the return check valve to allow an extra amount of vapor-purging liquid fuel to be flushed through the system and returned to the tank through the fill solenoid prior to engine start-up; (5) an excess flow valve to limit fuel flow to atmosphere in case of a severed fuel line; (6) a supply solenoid valve assembly that prevents fuel flow to the engine if the solenoid is not energized; (7) a supply line over-pressure check valve to prevent a pump outlet line from being overstressed due to pressure build up; (8) a tank pressure relief valve; (9) a tank drain valve; (10) a 'leak-free' electrical coupling; and (11) a fuel pod assembly housing one or two fuel pumps pumping either in parallel or series flow.

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Cass City, MI, United States of America

James A Herndon