Have any of you guys heard of a 5.0 oil pump having an outright failure????
Heres the deal..
Got the car from a friend of mine as an incomplete project.
Engine was built by a shop.
Engine was set in the car, and never hooked all the way up.
I got the car, pulled the upper end apart to look at it, change some stuff, etc.
About a month ago I used a drill and primed the oil system. Everything seemed fine.
Somewhere along the line I managed to drop the oil pump drive into the pan(the retainer is missing, i think it stuck to the distributor when I test fit it and fell out at the wrong time).
So I pulled the pan, got the drive, and put it back in.

Well, I been trying to get the car running the past few days. Getting the electrical sorted out on top of the car having a standalone means alot of cranking with nothing to show for it.
Tonight I got the car to fire a bit. I ran it maybe a minute total.

Thinking that I never looked at the oil pressure gauge when the car was running, and that it doesnt work while cranking(electric gauge), I got curious and disconnected the feedline to the blower. ITS DRY. Thank God I dont have the blower belt on yet.

So I pull the dizzy and try to prime the oil system. Nothing. If I turn the oil pump drive by hand, I might get a tiny amount of resistance(like its bound up) and then it breaks free and free spins. If I put the drill on it it does absolutely nothing.

Its almost like there is a sheared drive pin or one of the gears in the pump just totally broke. But that seems highly unlikely to me. Every time I seen an oil pump "fail" it was just wore out and had excessive gear to body clearance.

Like I say, the driveshaft is fine too. So its not a busted shaft.

Anyone hear of such a thing??????