Intermediate shaft failure at the circlip
 

15 years ago I had the intermediate shaft snap shear at the circlip snap ring at the connection shaft to the oil pump, this was in a 79 3.0 SC engine, today I had the same exact out of the blue failure on my 3.1 turbo engine with under 5,000 miles in it. Is this a common failure, it is the only failure I have ever had on these engines what's the odds.are the oil pumps prone to seizing.

How could I have 2 oil pumps seize on me..The engine was running great nothing unusual, I have 3 filters on the engine. Barely any metal shavings on the magnetic oil drain plug but it did have the snap ring, that's when I knew.

Three filters?

Yes I have a filter on a console where the engine oil cooler was, one on the oil tank, and a canton mesh screen filter from the return of the front external oil cooler. All this to prevent another oil pump problem. It is a 930 oil pump that locked up. Engine about 4000 miles on rebuild, had started car about 3 times in past week and moved it in and out if garage. Went to drive it for the first time this year, and after starting heard a rattling knocking sound, I grabbed my stethoscope and the sound appeared to be coming from the Chain cover I assumed it was a hydraulic tensioner. Next morning I decided to check it out started the engine all sounded great no noise. As a precaution I choose to pull the magnetic drain plug to see if there was anything on it and sure enough the snap ring was, pulled the sump and could see the sheared intermediate shaft.

Seems rare to me. Can't see anything on the IS shaft to adjust besides the gear backlash. Only other thing is the oil pump alignment
"Just read your latest post" Oil pump seized . Sorry to see that happen.

Another question is can you go in and rebuild the pump or buy another.

Putting a filter on the return line of any pump is never recommend in the hydraulic industry. Was your other failure also equipped with a return line filter? Return line filters result in lump cavitation and early death of the pump.
David

No it was not on the engine with the other pump. the Canton filter is a wire mesh pretty free flowing and non restrictive and filters when the engine has heated enough to open the thermostat to the front oil cooler. i have never noticed any fluctuation on my oil pressure gauge but if this is a known problem it will be removed.



The car has been driven for 10 years without issues.

Search this forum for Canton.......

I cant wait to look at the filter to see what it looks like, after reading the horror stories it's as good as gone.

Here's another odd deal, the oil pressure warning light never came on and the gauge was registering some pressure. My turbo oil line is connected at a tee with the oil pressure switch, could the turbo scavenge pump be pulling enough oil to prevent the switch from lighting, and really seems odd that the pressure gauge was reading 18.