re:81 no oil pressure

["William" <mopar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The oil pump shaft on my 81 LeBaron sheared off a few years ago. It ran for
about 15 seconds after the light came on (70mph on the freeway) as the
broken oil pump shaft does not interfere with the engine running. After
removing the pump, it was in fact seized, it appeared to be from many years
of small debris packing into a thin film in the corners of the rotor (valve
seals probably). I replaced the pump and shaft, thinking I was pretty
clever. I checked the main and rod bearings, they seemed ok, so I fired it
up. Still no oil pressure. After a frustrating weekend of trouble shooting,
I traced it to a spun cam bearing, blocking oil flow. I just junked the
motor and dropped in a hot 360. Anyway, might be food for thought. Good
luck,
William


----- Original Message -----
From: <JRuffingRuff@xxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2002 7:03 AM
Subject: Re: IML: re:81 no oil pressure


> Many times the shaft shears off at the very bottom tip area.  The camshaft
> still turns the rest of the shaft, including the top half which turns the
> distributor.
>
> I have seen it happen several times on 318s, curiously the ones I have
seen
> have all been early 80s units.   I have found that a large piece of debris
> gets into the pump and locks it up.  The shaft then shears.
>
> So, even if that is the problem: sheared oil pump drive shaft, the oil
pump &
> pickup will need to be replaced.  If the debris somehow dislodged after
the
> shaft sheared, you could get lucky, but I would expect the oil flow to
pull
> it back in.
>
> Jeff Ruffing
> 65 Imperial Crown covert
> ASE Master Technician
> 8+ year Chrysler Master Technician
>
>