[ian1959]

An oil sample would have shown the pump spline debris in the oil, mine did! it was like very very fine dust, and just like yours the splines were almost gone on the V20 Vickers pump, your drive splines will be worn, not as much but they will be as the Cat gear is harder material , if you look at the housing that the drive gear is in it is lubricated by the engine oil and there is a small cut out at the bottom of the housing to allow the oil to drain back into the timing gear cover, this oil along with the worn spline metal goes into the sump then out into the engine, the filter will not get it all, I always cut open my filters, I was horrified when I first did mine, it was full of bronze bearing material which I found was the thrust side of the crank thrust bearings, which is the front one on a C15 with the AStronic gearbox as it is a pull type clutch cover and not a push type, the clutch actuator was faulty and always had preload on the clutch which wore out the trust bearing.
The Cat part number for the drive gear is 6I 4575, and the Vickers input shaft is the 11 spline type, 180.00 Euro plus tax.

[SNDPuhlman]

Great Information, Ian!  I will definitely dig a bit deeper on this winter's PM and take a look.  I'd rather be horrified at the condition of the filter before the engine goes away.

Have a great weekend and thankyou!

Scott,

[DrTodd]

Ian,

I found out the same thing!  All parts associated with that pump are wear items.  It appears the pump shaft is not lubricated by the engine oil.  My pump was stripped of its splines on its input shaft literally as I backed out of our shop after the radiator and CAC repair.  I backed straight up went to go forward and turn only to meet what felt like a locked steering box.  I quickly found no cooling fan turning and new it had to be the pump or pump drive.  It was off, as you mentioned, very easily and my local cat dealer had it on the shelf.  My actual drive gear and internal splines looked fine and meshed good with the new pump.  I may have suffered some other problem like a locked pump but after removal the pump still spun ok.  I replaced it out of caution for what may have been going on inside.  It's my plan to remove the pump and grease the splines every other oil change as preventative maintenance.  At least that will give me peace of mind as to it's condition.  I must say the first pump went over 100K miles before failure so keeping an eye on it should be good insurance.  Especially as easy as it is to remove.

Do you happen to have the part # for the Eaton pump?  There are a few of us with the C15 motor and starting to source parts... Thank you!