Was doing my home work on priming the oil pump (really don't want to have to break the seal on the pump housing to pack it with vasoline)

Just read what seems to be a fantastic tip- and not usre if it's good or even if it's been discussed here before. In the absence of one of the priming tools for use with a drill, seemingly you can use a 12 mil socket on an extension bar...?

Vrai or Faux?

Yes, the drill method works fine. You can buy a drill adapter from ‘real steel’ (about £13) or alternatively make your own to drive the pump male blade fitting.

The drill needs to be reasonably powerful and a fair load will be placed on it when the pump primes

I always use this method and it is literally a two minute job ……….. especially if you mark the dizzy position with snowpake before you remove it.


Ian

Or fit a remote oil filter kit and just undo the hose & pour oil down it

Tis true, and works fine, but as said ^^ use a good drill to get the speed under load.

DIY oil pump primers was, in fact, one of the very first threads in the Tools & Fab forum

If you do use a socket and extension, be careful you don't knock the socket off...I did and it was a bugger to fish out!

I made mine from a nackered dizzy but it does work the drill hard


Dave williams

or

Oil cooler hose



Works every time..

So If I pour oil down the oil cooler hose do I still need to spin the pump down the dizzy hole or can I just crank away?

Cheers fellas btw!

mmm

All I do is hold the oil hose as high as it will allow.

pour oil in but keep poring till is comes out of the cooler where the hose should be connected to.

it will take a few minites

I normaly just pour a half lt or so down reconnect and start her up and check for the oil light to go out if it has not gone out within 20 sec repaet the prosess but I have only ever had to repet once

What Jules said - it seems as long as you get the oil pump gears wet enough to gain suction from the sump you're alright.

For safety you could take the king lead off and spin it on the starter till the light goes out, then reconnect.

hmmm, most likley you have the later type drive; as below:


now putting a 6 or 12 sided socket to engage the narrow strip on the shaft seems a bit dodgy - dunn, it may work.

I used a battery powered drill, set to lower speed for more torque - and you can feel the resistance when the pump primes plus hear the oil hissing out of the rockers (and see it eventually).

if you use an electric drill on top speed, you may hurt yourself when the oil pump tires to stall the drill.

ah crap - now I'm looking stupid...

err how do I make sure I don't lose my timing?

Assuming you haven't moved the dizzy yet, just grab a marker pen or scribe and mark across the joint between the dizzy and timing cover. Then take the dizzy cap off and either mark the current location of the rotor arm or turn the crank until it's lined up with cylinder 1 contact. Remove the dizzy. After you've primed the pump, just refit the dizzy and line the marks up again

Note the orientation of the tooth on the oil pump drive and try to leave it in the same place afterwards so that it reengages easily.

Remember not to turn the engine over while the dizzys out, else you'll have to set the engine to TDC before you put it back together. You'll also either have to take a rocker cover off or take 50/50 on whether you've set cylinder 1 to TDC on the combustion or exhaust stroke.

Also note that as you insert the dizzy it'll turn clockwise a few degrees as the gears engage, so start with it slightly offset.

Thanks Geoff, phew I was reading things about making sure the rotor was exactly 30deg offset and stuff.

Thats the one downside of the Haynes, it's got all the info but it can tend to over complicate...

George

Thanks all btw!

30 deg is the offset you need for it to finish up in the right place after the gears have meshed, but it's not as complicated as it sounds - you can just judge it by eye.

Every time I've had to prime the oil pump on my V8, i've used an electric dril with a steel rod that had had a groove 'carefully machined' by angle grinder at one end, which is just wide enough to engage the male slot of the pump drive.

Works every time.

Damm sight better idea than packing the pump with vaseline for 2 reasons:

a. I could not get it to work
b. I got a slap for getting oil in the vaseline she bought for the baby.

UPDATE:

The 12mm socket thing doesn't work, as was guessed earlier the socket doesn't get a good enough purchase on the shaft. I tried 3/8ths or which ever is the near equivalent and still no go.

So I made a perfect little priming tool from an old tyre iron. Alls you need is an angle grinder and ideally a a bench grinder. With the angle grinder just cut a slot in one end of a bar of metal (obviously long enough to reach into the timing cover) and then make sure the bar will fit in your chuck. If not - like mine - just grind that bad boy down, use the bench grinder here so your hands are free to spin the bar against the grinder so you grind it down as evenly as possible.

It all sounds obvious but I was put off making the tool in the first instance cause people were talking about either turning metal or welding it or using a knackered dizzy. Don't have a lathe or a welder.... or a knackered dizzy

You can buy the purpose made tool from Real Steel ............... about £11



Ian

I just pack it with vaseline. it doesn't take that long and does the job first time everytime.