Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Ford Motor Company Limited

Thomas C Nation

James Thompson

Stephen Thomas Kempfer

James Knight

Robert C Johnson

David L Perry

A fuel pump system for pumping fuel to an engine in a vehicle includes a pump motor having a carbon-based commutator and brushes in a position exposed to fuel, resulting in a tendency to form a film between the commutator and brushes that can reduce pump performance by increasing the electrical resistance of the brush-commutator interface. The pump motor has a nominal voltage rating. A power circuit is coupled to the pump motor for selectably providing an operating voltage and a boost voltage, wherein the boost voltage is greater than the nominal voltage rating. A controller selecting the operating voltage during an ordinary run cycle and selects the boost voltage during a clean-up cycle. The controller selects the clean-up cycle for a limited time that is sufficiently short to avoid damage to the pump motor from exceeding the nominal voltage rating and sufficiently long to create arcing between the commutator and brushes that reverses formation of the film.

Fuel pump motor using carbon commutator having reduced filming

This specification discloses testing vehicle primary ignition systems by taking the integral of the primary spark plug firing voltage versus time over a time period when the spark should occur. To determine when an integration output should be evaluated, a phase locked loop circuit is used to predict the occurrence of an ignition firing pulse. To compensate for changes in engine speed and yet disregard extraneous spark plug firings, the phase locked loop circuit contains two loop filters having different response times which are automatically selected to minimize response to erroneous or missing spark plug firings and maximize response to actual engine RPM changes.

Ignition system tester

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Canton, MI, United States of America

Thomas C Nation