OK, this is getting ridiculous.

Rocket scientist that I am, turned out I *was* turning the oil pump
shaft in the wrong direction.  I don't know what I was
thinking--guess I'd had my head under the bus too long.  This morning
went out, hooked up the drill to the oil pump shaft, turned it
*clockwise* this time (thanks Rachel!), and after 30 seconds or so
the drill started bogging down and I got a gusher from the oil
pressure sender hole.

Yay!  My four year old helper and I did a little dance, and we went
to go get rags to clean up the oil mess.

Cleaned up the oil mess, and went to spin the oil pump again to make
sure I had oil up to the sender hole before threading in the sender,
and...  nothing.  30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds.  No oil.

What gives?

I undid the plug at the pre-drilled mount on the oil cooler/filter
housing, and poured about 3/4 of a cup of oil in there before it
filled.  Spun the oil pump again.  Still no oil pressure, even out
the mount on the oil cooler.

I'm re-using my old pump, but I'm rather confused here.  Why would I
get oil once--and only once?  If the pump were bad, why would I have
gotten a healthy gush of oil at all?  The oil level in the pan
according to the dipstick is full, and the vehicle is level.  The
pump pushed oil for me once, but will not do it again.

I was worried that maybe that first gush knocked some obnoxious gunk
into a Very Important Oil Passage (I suppose I still am, a bit), but
if that's a case, why would I get no oil spurting out even from the
hole in the oil cooler/filter housing?

Thanks all for all the help so far on this.  It's nice to know I'm
not the only one who has had similar problems--although my
difficulties are beginning to become ridiculous.

Thanks!

T.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley        Bowen Island, BC, Canada      49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W

'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell                                   =============
'99 daughter Margaret                            /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
                             SPEED KILLS!        {.            .| clatter!
                         Drive a Vanagon diesel   ~-()-==----()-~