rotary vacuum pump clicking unevenly, have brakes and oil pressure.

[damac]

I have never experienced this noise before.  I had my original pump on my car which never had issues but I broke the nipple off, then I got another pump from somebody and a new lid, yet on my same setup it was having intermittent vacuum issues?  Now I have this other used pump bottom I bought from somebody else and it has put out vacuum fine for months.

Its a tick thats uneven but you can hear it in the engine bay with the car running.  Can't detect any other belt noise or smell indicating they are binding?  Oil pressure seems the same on aftermarket gage I am getting oil pressure on head port.  I would imagine the car would be dead by now if it was severe since it gets driven every day.

I tried searching and didn't really find anything.  I'm freaked out the engine will sieze or something.  I haven't even taken it out yet since I don't know what to look for.

Thanks for any info!

[maxfax]

Did it start with the swap of the vac pump??  Maybe it's something in that itself..    Can you determine where the noise is coming from on the engine, IE top bottom front back..    One other thing, do you have hydro or mech lifters???

[damac]

I need to get the car back on the road so I yanked the vacuum pump and something isn't right

The piece inside has started machining a notch out of the top cover?  And it looked pretty darn dry on the walls right after I pulled the lid.  So the lid is scored and rough as well as the inside/vanes.

I never saw anything like this on the 3 pumps I have dealth with this far.  All were smooth with just a hint of varnish under the lids showing the outline of where the pieces mated.

This pump has been in there for months.  Today is the first time I noticed a noise and was able to hone in on the vacuum pump area within a few minutes.  I have been under the hood atleast a handfull of times since that was installed and never heard that kind of noise before.

So could I have installed it wrong causing an oil starvation issue even though I have always had oil pressure on my manual gage?  It is an older engine, I have the oil pressure sender in the head port on a t with the stock one.  I only see about 80 or so psi cold and then the car will idle at 15-20 hot, and jump 10 more psi per 1000 rpm or so.

I don't see how I you can install them wrong though?  If you seat the body so you can bolt it down flush, and bolt the lid on, there isn't enough room to do so without having the oil pump and vacuum pump keyed?

I also have brakes and can go yank the line from the booster after its shut down and get a woooosh.

[theman53]

Mine did the same thing. I sanded the top plate surface flat and ordered some new orings for the top and bottom. It worked fine. There is also a screen inside the top piece that sometimes gets plugged causing more wear. I was told to rip it out as all the oil inside the vac pump isn't filtered so if it goes back into the pan it would get filtered anyhow. So that is what I did and ripped it out. I probably had an 1/8" grove the entire way around the top plate.

[ORCoaster]

damac,  What condition is the lower seal in?  The one that is up the vac pump shaft a bit.  I think you may find it cracked or even missing.  I thought that was the necessary part to seal the flow of oil up into the pump itself.  Otherwise it just runs back down the shaft.  You might be able to use the other seal from the first pump.

[burn_your_money]

How worn is the tang on the top of the oil pump and also the part on the bottom of the vacuum pump where it meets the oil pump shaft?

[damac]

I have new seals, there is the top lid oring, the base to block oring and if you take the pump and turn it upside down there is a seal right there.  The old ones are black, my new one is green.

As far as the wear on the mated parts, all mine seem to be the same with some wear from old used parts like pictures I have seen going around.  But how would I know if its worn too much? 

My oil pressure never dropped below 15 psi from what I have seen?  I get about 80 cold which quickly starts to go down after a minute or two.  When I rev there is extra pressure relative to rpms.  I though I read the head spot gives a bit less reading than the oil cooler, but with it there I get almost the bently spec of 29psi at 1900 rpm, I think around 25 psi

The vacuum pump doesn't even turn smooth now.  I have one other old body and a couple lids with broken barbs.  One is jbwelded with pieces and seems to hold but I didn't want to use it.  The other seeps from the pressed on barb so I didn't want to use that.  Do I blindly just put another pump into service here?

[theman53]

seems to me with the synthetic oils any wear on the top lid is too much. Even running 15w-40 dino oils I think any measurable wear is too much. I have several vac pumps and most you can see where the vanes run but that is it. My one that had 1/8" of grove didn't give me brakes at idle. My one that had a grove you could feel but not really measure gave good vacuum, but it took a little while. Both had the screens knocked out and I had similar oil pressure.