Magnet assembly for electric fuel pump

In a motor vehicle fuel pump including

• a thin-walled tubular shell,
• a pump in said shell at a first end thereof,
• an end housing assembly in said shell at a second end thereof, and
• an electric motor in said shell including an armature supported on said shell for rotation about a longitudinal centerline thereof and a commutator, and
• a pair of carbon brushes on said end housing assembly slidably engaging said commutator in a plane perpendicular to said longitudinal centerline,
• a magnet assembly comprising:
• a tubular ferromagnetic flux carrier closely received in said shell around said armature having a cylindrical inner wall surface and a first uninterrupted annular end abutting said pump and a second uninterrupted annular end abutting said end housing assembly,
• a pair of magnets on said inner wall surface of said flux carrier arc-shaped to conform to the curvature of said inner wall surface having a non-magnetic state as formed and a magnetic state after exposure to magnetic flux,
• a spring clip urging relative separation between said magnets in said non-magnetic state thereof in the circumferential direction of said inner wall surface,
• an arc-shaped plastic locator on said inner wall surface curved to conform to the curvature of said inner wall surface having a pair of side edges parallel to said longitudinal centerline and a pair of end edges substantially flush with corresponding ones of said first and said second annular ends of said flux carrier,
• means defining an outward opening magnet pocket in each of said side edges of said plastic locator each having a pair of lateral short sides at opposite ends of a long side,
• said spring clip biasing each of said magnets in said non-magnetic state thereof to a seated position in a corresponding one of said magnet pockets against said long side thereof and captured between said pair of short sides thereof whereby said magnets are located longitudinally relative to said first and said second annular ends of said flux carrier, and
• means on said end housing assembly closely receiving said plastic locator whereby the angular position of said brushes on said end housing is established relative to said magnets in said magnet pockets in said plastic locator.