Patent ID: 8534247

Claim:
A valve timing control apparatus for controlling a valve timing of a valve configured to be opened and closed by a camshaft in accordance with a torque transmitted from a crankshaft of an internal combustion engine, the valve timing control apparatus comprising: a housing rotatable with the crankshaft; a vane rotor rotatable with the camshaft, the vane rotor partitioning an interior of the housing into an advance chamber and a retard chamber in a rotative direction, the vane rotor configured to change a rotation phase relative to the housing to an advance side or a retard side correspondingly when working fluid is supplied into the advance chamber or the retard chamber; a control valve that controls a flow of the working fluid relative to the advance chamber and the retard chamber through a spool that is linearly movable in a sleeve through which the working fluid passes, the control valve being arranged in a gang rotating element constructed by the vane rotor and the camshaft; and a linear solenoid having an output shaft that linearly reciprocates the spool, a coil that generates a magnetic flux by being supplied with electricity, a casing defining an internal chamber into which the working fluid flows from the sleeve, and a discharge port from which the working fluid is discharged out of the internal chamber, a needle that reciprocates integrally with the output shaft in the internal chamber, a pair of cylindrical stators opposing with each other through an air gap in an axis direction in the internal chamber, the pair of stators and the needle forming a magnetic circuit through which the magnetic flux passes so as to drive the needle to reciprocate on an inner circumference side of the pair of stators in a radial direction, and a cylindrical spacer fitting with an outer circumference side of the pair of stators in the internal chamber so as to restrict a short circuit from being generated in the magnetic circuit between the pair of stators, the air gap being located on an inner circumference side of the spacer, wherein the spacer defines a discharge passage that connects the air gap to the discharge port of the casing.