End-Play is one thing I'm going to check with the new pump and the HEI. With parts installed, there should be some endplay of distributor shaft. TomL said anything from about .010"-.050" is fine as long as gear geometery with cam is maintained. IE, gears meshing correctly with above mentioned endplay. I assume that if I have any installed endplay, the distributor is not jamming the gear into the oil pump all by itself.
Now looking at your pic, I see the thrust washer. Is it part of the oil pump? Or does it just sit between the pump and gear? My new pumps didn't have this. Sadly, all my old pumps got tossed before this happened, so I don't have them to look at. Also the pic shows a gap between the drive tang and slot in oil pump. So shaft is not bottoming out there. Thrust must go to top of oil pump.
So is it dist or oil pump problem? Im going to measure old vs new pumps and post the results.
