[Ziggster]

Cleaned up the “aftermarket” cover plate with 600 grit paper on glass with a bit of water. Did the same for both gears from the 8BA pump. Cleaned up the gear teeth with a ss wire brush, and threw them in my vibratory grinder filled with crushed walnut shells for a couple of hours. Came out not too bad. Also hogged out the discharge opening. I just wanted to clean up the rough casting edges and next thing it looks twice as large. Not sure if that is good or bad, but looks better than the rough cast original opening. Lol!

Measured everything, and this what I came up with.

Driven and idler gear height: 1.303” -1.304”
Housing depth for gear set: 1.300” - 1.303”
Gear to gear tooth clearance: 0.004” - 0.006”
Gear OD to housing clearance: less than 0.002” (thinnest feeler gauge I have is 0.002” and it won’t fit between the gear and the housing

As you can see, the gears are higher than the depth of the housing by a bit. You can feel the difference when you run, your fingernail across both surface and definitely when I loosely install the cover plate. I thought it was supposed to be the other way? Meaning, the gears were supposed to be shorter in height than the housing depth for the gears. So, I decided to order the gasket which I hope will solve this issue, but it will take one to two weeks to get here from the USA.

Some pics...