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MG MGA - Stuck oil pump

Hi all,
I posted some time ago when my piston broke (so am I, let's go for a drink ha ha ). When I stripped down the engine to send it away to have the bore re sleeved and engine rebored, I couldn't get the old oil pump out. I bought a new one anyway to be on the safe side. Are there any special ways to remove it? I tried all the usual ways of hitting it to no avail. In desperation, I may just chisel it to bits to get it off. I'm collecting the engine tomorrow (Saturday) and will start the rebuild this weekend so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ray.
Ray Allden

Ray,
On a recent tear down of my 3 main 1800 engine, I had a similiar problem--I could not remove the oil pump because the drive spindle was frozen. It all came apart after numerous heating and beating cylcles. What caused this was a complete failure of the gear on the drive pump spindle--this is the part that drives the pump off the cam. It was totally stripped of teeth! Amazingly, the engine was not damaged. The PO (definetely not DPO) must have seen the drop and oil pressure and shut down immediately. This engine is an early 1800 3 main and resembles closely the 1622 engines. When I examined and measured the crank it had no scoring and measured standard. Additionally, the bores and pistons showed the same lack of wear. Camshaft looked almost new. I do not know how many miles the engine had on it or any other history other than it languished for years in a nice dry shop after having given up its cylinder head and flywheel to others. I plan on using this engine along with an aluminum cylinder head and a Judson supercharger in my MGA.
Anyway, the short part of all of this is that I am amazed that the engine had no damage other than the oil pump. I hope that the good Karma with this engine continues. You will probably fair just as well with yours. Use alternating, applications of heat and hammer and it should come loose. I would hone the spindle drive bore before installing a new one. Also carfully, check the camshft drive gear for damage, along with the usual flush out of the oil galleries before reassembly.
If I was there in GB I would buy you that pint, until you recover from this tragedy.
Best of luck to you.
James Johanski

Many thanks James,
The engine wasn't ready today anyway. I'm collecting Monday instead. All other components are ok. Hope yours stay in good fettle.
Regards,
Ray
Ray Allden

This thread was discussed between 08/02/2008 and 09/02/2008

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