Steve Clifton wrote:
> Greetings MG listers-
>
> I am going to replace the oil pump on my 72 MGB. Seems like a straight
> forward job as described in my workshop manuals. I would welcome advice on
> whether there any "traps" and or tips from those who have done this before
> that would make the job smoother.
Well, since you asked,
Make sure the new oil pump is not defective!!!
About this time last year I was getting my MG ready for the wedding.
One of the things to address was the low oil pressure. The consensus
was to drop new main and rod bearings in, replace the oil pump, and
don't drive it unil the wedding. It was a, if you will, temporary fix.
Using my soon-to-be-aunt's garage as a workspace, I took to the job with
an eagerness not to overstay my welcome. I finished the job in good
time and went over on a Friday night to put some oil in and drive it
home. With the new bearings and pump, the oil pressure was where it
should be. For 5 minutes, anyway. About 1500 ft into my 5 mile drive
back home, I noticed the oil pressure was 0. I got it back to the
Aunt's garage with no damage (that's MG code for pushing the car) and
realized something was seriously amiss internally. With no other
options, I put the car back on stands and dropped the oil pan.
Busted oil pump.
If you take your new pump apart, you will notice there is a main shaft
that is driven by the camshaft, with a squarish gear on the lower 1/3.
The gear is a seperate piece, but locked to the shaft with what looked
to be crimpings. On mine, the crimpings had failed, producing some
small bits of metal and creating a condition that allowed the shaft to
spin but the gear to remain stationary.
If you pardon the pun, I got shafted.
The final insult was that in looking at the pump shaft, it appeard fine.
Only by holding the pump and gear and rotating the shaft could you
tell there was slippage between the two.
My apologies for such a long-winded and decided meandering reply, but
there's a moral hidden deep. Check your new pump; if there are two
opposed 'crimpings' holding the gear to the shaft, you may want to take
a paeek at one from another vendor.
Although to be quite fair, the more often you remove the oil pan with
the engine in situ, the easier and faster it is to do it mulitple times.
Thomas James Pokrefke, III
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