O.k., the book was useless on this one. I did it, but not in this order. I took two steps backwards a couple of times. Here is how I should have done it.
The objective was to replace the oil pump. Have on hand: oil pump, pick up tube washer, oil pan gasket, oil, oil filter.
Set parking brake, leave in neutral, put chocks behind rear wheels.
Jack up front of truck, put on jack stands, just get the front wheels off the ground.
Disconnect the battery.
Do not remove the valve cover. Waste of time. (Book says to do it)
Leaving plug wires attached, remove distributor top and set aside.
Rotate engine until rotor points to number 1 spot
Remove distributor. Do not rotate shaft.
Get a flashlight and look down in the hole where the distributor came out of. Make note of which way the slot is pointing. Also, make a note of the offset on the slot.
Now for the fun stuff.
Remove the center link from between the tie rods. If you just break the jam nuts free on each end, and leave them in the original position, you can just unscrew the center link and remove it. (Later, when you re-install the center link, the alignment won't get screwed up). The tires will be pointing outward now. (A side note here--there's not too much to screw up by removing the center link except toe. During a separate project, I used the book to set toe. I went to the tire shop to have it double checked, and it was dead on. Book was good for something.
Just make sure both ball joints are in neutral position when you tighten up the center link).
Remove the deflection pan. Because the tires are pointing outward, some clearance has been made to access the rear screws on the pan.
Remove the frame cross member. Two bolts on each side. Easy.
So far, so good. Now things slow down a bit.
Look and see if your clutch cable is routed thru the dipstick stand off. If it is, you will need to unhook the cable. If it's not routed thru, skip this part.
At first, I couldn't figure out how to overcome the pressure of the clutch to get the cable off.
The cable goes thru a hole that exists between the tranny and engine. On mine, there was another hole right next to it. (I assume DPO left a bolt out. If you have a bolt there, take it out. Don't forget to put it back later). I got an aftermarket battery hold down rod from my battery. It has a little hook on one end, and threads on the other. I passed the rod through the hole, put the hook over the clutch lever, and put a washer and nut on the other end. Tighten up the nut, the clutch lever moves forward, and you can slip the cable off. Pull cable forward, tuck up and out of the way.
Drain the oil. Put drain plug back in. Good time to change the oil filter. Remove the dipstick. Remove the oil pan. There is one bolt holding the oil pick up tube. It doesn't need to come all the way out. Just loosen it, pull the pick up tube down and backwards, and it will come out. Note the rubber washer on the end of the tube. My oil pump came with a new washer. Take the old washer off, put a new washer on, set the tube aside.
The new pump came with a nut and bolt holding it together. Remove the nut and bolt, and prepare to swap out the pumps.
The pump is held in place by four bolts. Three are long, one is shorter. Remove two of the longer bolts, and the one shorter bolt. Remove the final bolt, and withdraw the pump. Paying attention to the offset, orient the slot on the new pump to the same direction as the old pump. Put the new pump up in the engine, hold it in place with one bolt.
Climb out from under the truck. Get a flashlight and look down into the distributor hole. If you are lucky, the slot will be in the correct position. If not, you'll have to pull the pump off and try again. It took me three tries to get it right, rotating the gear shaft about one tooth each time.
Now, you essentially reverse everything.
Put the remaining three bolts in the oil pump, and tighten up.
Install the oil pick up tube, tighten up the mounting bolt.
Install the oil pan. Replace the dipstick. Install oil filter.
Re-attach the clutch cable. If you removed a bolt, put it back.
Install frame cross member. Install deflector pan. Install center link.
Install distributor and cap.
Put in oil. Check for leaks. Have something cold to drink.
I spent about half a day on this, including pressure washing the items removed. I had no spare parts left over
, and the truck runs, WITH better oil pressure.
Good luck.
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I wound up changing the timing chain and gears and timing cover with the pan till hanging on over the crossmember. I hadn't heard anyone talk about what would happen if I undid that. I don't know anything about suspension stuff. The hardest part I had was weaving the oil pan gasket back into place when I was puttin her back together. I too had the slot facing the wrong way when I put the oil pump back in, but just rotated the distributor till it was right.