I tried doing what you're talking about Jon but the weight of the pickup tube screws with everything. The truck style pickup tube actually has a retainer that floats on the tube rather than being brazed in a fixed position. If the retainer were brazed into a fixed position, the procedure you documented would work great. Now I have a fancy little aluminum oil pump clamp I can't use.

I'm afraid the pressure regulator spring is faulty. Anyone have a pump laying around they're willing to pull the spring out of and see what color the paint is on it and how long it is? My spring was white and only 2.000" long. Its appearantly not made of quality spring steel because if you compress it you can make it shorter, if you pull on it the spring becomes longer. I stretched it to 2.300" long and now I have a little better pressure but not where I want it to be at.