My Pete rebuild

[Nostalgic]

Today's lunch break was consumed with producing a solution to a problem that likely didn't really exist outside of my....

Oil pressure.

So the consensus is 8 dimes. Since half of my truck was apart and in the side boxes, I had the luxury to dig through a box and find all the pieces to the oil pump and see exactly how it works. I may be wrong, but as I see it, the pressure is actually regulated off the bore that comes down from the front gear cover. It flows into the side of the Oring'd cap and through the orifice at the base, pushes the dogbone down to relieve pressure back into the pickup tube side of the pump gears. The ball and spring overload is a secondary safety relief in case the dogbone would get seized, etc., and in reality, should never relieve or move unless something is wrong.

Anyhow, where was I? Ok, the moving dogbone. I just see it moving a LOT, fluxuating to changing temps and pressures way upstream of the pump. If the dogbone is moving, the spring is compressing and decompressing against the stack of dimes pretty much constantly. I just see (in my engine only, since no on else has had a problem with them lol), the little dimes with their grooved edges, grinding against the aluminum bore in my pump. The dimes are a loose fit, but a penny @ .75" with it's smooth edges, fits perfectly. Only a penny, even today's zinc pennies, are plated in copper, and copper & aluminum doesn't play well together. I don't need this stress in my life lol.

So, as a solution to my created crisis, I bought a 1/2"x3/4" aluminum spacer and spent an extra long lunch break diamond filing it down to to a height of .407"

So voila, my shim.