Removing the oil pump gears

[ed_crouch]

So I've got the cover plate off the oil pump, and the driven gear (the one NOT attached to the driveshaft) drops out fine, but the driving gear (one with the driveshaft and drive spigot that fits into the dizzy) wont come out. It drops about half an inch, and then feels like its jamming on something. It almost feels like theres a burr on the top of the driveshaft and its scoring the sides of the hole (YIKES!).

Has anyone else encountered this and am I missing something? How do I get round this without ultimately knackering the front cover?!?

Ed.

[Number 7]

Ed, whenever I've removed the gears they just dropped out easily. Did you have good oil pressure when last running? Only reason I ask is that I did once snap the driveshaft, which I guess may have made it difficult to remove (I didn't do the repair so don't know for sure). Maybe worth slackening the distributor and giving it a wiggle? Failing that, take it out.

7.

[Wedg1e]

It MIGHT just be oil varnish Ed, but then again...

[retroracing]

that gear usually takes a bit of wiggling to get out of there from my experience.
Just a thought, have u got the dizzy out atm, if not might be worth pulling that out of there then at least you could have a look in from the top ( with a torch) to check there's nothing nasty going on?? and also it might just be snagged on the dizzy drive gear if it hasnt been out in a while??
worst case scenario, i have a very nice spare front cover sat in the corner of the garage !

oh, and remember to mark up and photogrph the position of the diz properly before you pull it out, i've made that schoolboy error 1 to many times, using a not so permanent marker!

[ed_crouch]

Thanks fellas I'll investigate. I doubt it's varnish - inside of engine is really clean...

Dizzy back in wrong won't be an issue - all it does on mine is drive the oil pump!

[Wedg1e]

Could be that the fretting of the flatted drive section inside the distributor end has given the edges a bit of a flare...

[ed_crouch]

Yep, I did suspect this, however; judgment call - this is a fight for another day, i.e. one where I have the engine out to sort out a few other things.