So I just finished replacing a exhaust valve (cylinder 8). Put everything back together, and setup the timing and I now have no oil pressure. I shut down immediately. At first I thought maybe the sender just got disconnected, nope its fine.

While setting up the timing I did turn the crankshaft some with the distributor out.

Do I need to prime the oil pump?

 

anyone?

 

Oil pump should be full. You shouldn't have to. Crank it with disabled start and you'll probably get pressure. It can take a while sometimes

 

do you think its possible the oil pump shaft came out and dropped into the oil pan when I took out the distributor?

 

Not likely but it is posible that when you pulled the distributer that you pulled the shaft up out of the pump and it didnt goback in steaight Pull the distributer and get a flash light and check it

 

Highly doubt it. Doesn't be enough clearance to do that

 

I'm gonna check out the distrib hole Friday, too much going on at work tomorrow. I'll let yall know how this works out.

Thanks again for the input...

 

Well sure enough the pump drive shaft was missing. And it was a PIA to get the new one installed. Now I have oil pressure!!!

To anyone who has this happen to them heres a tip:

Superglue the oil pump drive shaft to your distributor and install it that way. It makes installation much easier, I tried all kinds of hoses, grippers, vice grips (needle nose ones) and nothing worked.

Thanks again yall, this is a great site.