ATTENTION TR-2,3,4 owners and racers.
I just had a car towed to my shop with a failed oil pump gear. The oil pump
gears that have been supplied by TRF and by Moss USA appear to be made by
the same people. The 4 lobed inner gear rotor is pinned to the shaft that
drives it with a steel pin that appears the same as the originals that were
produced by Holbourn Eaton ( I believe). On the pump that we inspected
today, the pin had worked its way out of the rotor until it jammed against
the outer rotor, siezing the pump and shearing the drive shaft that comes
down from the distributor drive gear. This gear had been in service for
9,000 miles over a period of 3 years. There were no signs of anything that
could have possiblly caused this failure. The pin appears to have worked
itself loose on its own. (Unfortunately, the owner didn't shut the engine
down in time even though he heard "knocking " noises and he drove the engine
until it spun the rod bearings and siezed).
According to Moss the warrantee on the oil pump gears is "one year,
unlimited milage".
As these are theonly pump gears available at this time, so far as I
know, I am very concerned as it could be a major problem.
As of yet, I don't know how big. I am going to check all of the gears I
have in stock and try to press the pin out. I don't know how tight a press
it should be . I will compre it to some original but worn out gears that I
still have around.
Regards, Greg Solow
The Engine Room
Santa Cruz, Ca.
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