i've been wondering, is this why cold starts were so hard even with a under drive starter... first start of the day was always unusually hard but then once warm it was easy.

it's very weird how the gear has 0 clearance at the top and bottom of the pump. Honestly i can't remember if the pump felt excessively tight when i got it, i'd tend to say it was harder to turn than the current 'good' spare pump.

the casting for the pump is really messy, but only on the inside where it matters. the outside looks fine.

I've always used aftermarket parts and never had anything this odd happen before.

my first question is, is there some sort of magic way that the gear inside the pump got larger? if not, then the shaft and gear were too tight in the first place, that being the case, the 'play' there should have been would be taken up by pressing the gear right against the top of the pump housing, which it must have been doing for the gear top to be blue from heat.

The oil didn't "fail" per se, the gear top got so hot from having too little clearance, did I just get lucky and it died, or did switching to a radically different oil cause a failure that was coming? this oil thing worries me... was switching oils a fluke?

***the gear did seize to the top of the pump, the part the gear rotates in was scuffed, but not blue or seized.***

that seems interesting, also, the galley that feeds oil to the pump shaft was already tiny, but this casting has all kinds of cast in crap around the little inlet, the metal debris from the pump gear rubbing the bottom of the pump chamber would likely go straight to the shaft bearing...

so how's that for weird, the gear seized, inside the pump to the top, that broke the cam gear, which should have sheared the roll pin, but didn't and even taken apart the pump is hard to turn, so the lack of clearance wasn't the only problem with the pump, because if it were just clearance it would turn easily once apart, but something else is wrong too...