i recentley bought a 289 for my 76 mav. got tore apart and replaced every single part you can accept for a stupid 6 dollar oil pump rod. and it breaks in half like a twig and i found it because i had no oil pressure.is this car not meant to have oil pressuer or some thing because the 250 i took out had no oil pressure when i bought it .so i had it rebulit and still no oil pressure now this one does it to.where has my luck gone to.
I remember back when---how many times have I said this?,you had a plastic covered camshaft gear,and ONE little piece of that would go right through the pickup screen,jamb the oil pump,and SNAP goes the shaft! I never liked Fords rotor oil pumps anyway! It's not bad luck,it's happened to all of us! I'll give you a short story from my own experience. My ex was driving a 64 Galaxie 500 XL. The little piece of plastic,before mentioned,broke the oil pump shaft. This was a 390 engine,ours have the same anemic setup. Oil light comes on. She at least stopped and checked the oil. Oil levels fine so cool, it's ok to drive home. Home was 15 miles on I-95,going 75 mph! She gets home. Honey,there's something wrong with the car. It's making this clicking noise. She told me about the oil light and that the oil was ok. My heart dropped! I pulled the pan and to my disbelief the connecting rod bearings were fine! I replaced the timing chain and sprockets,real steel ones,the oil pump,pickup,and shaft, And we drove that car another 2½ years! They just don't make em like they used to!
Having that pump drive break is a way to save the engine if the pump gets jammed. It shuts the ignition off. Pain in the behind, but better than burning up your bearings. Bits of the valve stem seals can dry out, get in the pan and jam a stock pump, too. Had that happen twice. The stock oil pump pickup is designed that if the screen clogs, the oil (and whatever) starts going around it and junk can get in the pump. I changed to a Mellings pump and pickup. The pickup has a full screen with no way to get around it. Much better design.
I too, have had the hardened valve stem seals lock up the pump. I would definitely rather replace the shaft and clean the pump than destroy the entire engine. Yet another reason not to do motor flushes.:16suspect
That really is the whole problem! It doesn't cause the engine to shut off! The only way I could see that happening is if the pin on the distributor shaft sheared. That,I have never seen happen! The oil pump drive always twisted like a piece of licorice candy,until it broke! I've seen this many times on Ford V8s!
I understand and agree with what your saying.. I have seen the tip shear or round off in the pump also. I just don't understand what the captain is talking about. Maybe if there is a cut off switch in the oil system I can see the ignition shutting off, but our cars didn't have that.
Both times that I had this happen with the Comet, it was from a medium-hard launch from a dead stop, and it happened quick enough, that the car was coasting... stalled... by the other side of the intersection.... four lanes. The second time it happened was so similar to the first, immediately I was thinking ... "oh, no, not this @#%^ again!" ... and it was. Now that you mention it, it doesn't make much sense to me, either, why it would shut it down. The gear on the distributor still meshes with the cam, but bear with me here .... this was a long time ago ... I seem to remember popping the distributor cap, and the rotor was not turning while a friend was cranking the motor over with the starter. I have broken the oil pump drive in this car twice and once in my 65 Mustang ... all three times, the car no longer ran. Having a hard time explaining why... thinking the pin for the distributor gear must have sheared each time too. I don't remember ... the last time this happened was 15 years ago. Guess that means that, no matter how aggravating it was at the time, I've been lucky.
When I was having my Cleveland built, my builder would always call me when he had to order anything that we hadn't already discussed about buying. One of the things he called me on was an oil pump drive he was going to order from ARP. I happened to be there when it came in and he laid the ARP rod and my stock rod side by side. There is a lot more meat on that ARP oil pump rod.
