Patent ID: 7654370

Claim:
A shock absorber assembly comprising: a shock body; a rod movable relative to said shock body along a rod axis, one of said shock body and rod being mountable to an axle component and the other of said shock body and said rod being mountable to a vehicle chassis; a dust tube having an inner surface surrounding an outer surface of said shock body with the shock body being movable relative to the dust tube in response to road load inputs; a plurality of magnets fixed to one of said dust tube and said shock body wherein at least some of said plurality of magnets are axially spaced apart from an adjacent magnet in a direction along said rod axis to from a plurality of magnetic zones that are separated from each other by non-magnetic zones; and a module fixed to the other of said dust tube and said shock body, said module interacting with said plurality of magnets to determine a position of said dust tube relative to a position of said shock body.