March 01, 2005

    While I took a few days off, I picked the brains of my buddies on the Automotive and Lemon Law Forum. It was suggested that I should "prime" the oil pump before installation. I was told, and then later read, to pack the gear cavity full of petroleum jelly. "What we do is load up the gears with petroleum jelly, your preference of brand names, then crank engine. This allows the gears to be lubricated and not to run dry against each other. With the lubricant, it gives the pump suction to start the oil flow till the oil gets up in there."

	I figured that I was doing everything right so I looked at the oil pump primer tool I had. That is were the problem was. The end of the shaft was too thick to fit down into the groove in the drive shaft. It fit just enough to were you could feel it by hand but as soon as you put any rpms to it, it spun around on top of the shaft.
I had read about using a modified distributor to pre-oil the engine, and it just so happened I had a spare, so I went ahead and started on the modifications I had to make. After removing everything that I could easily, I began on cutting away on the top of the shaft so my drill would accept it.

    The next step was to grind the gears off of the bottom part of the shaft. I bought a 4" bench grinder at a thrift store awhile back so I broke it out. After about two minutes of grinding, my wheel was down to nothing. I took more off the wheel than the drive shaft. I think that that wheel has been on there for awhile. Well it looks like I get to go shopping tomorrow.

If anyone of you would like to contribute please let me know.