" End play on the pump gears, I intend to deal with this as per a Norton pump,ie, face off body and plate til nil clearance,free to turn, any issues? "
____ Providing I've properly understood what you're meaning to convey, then no issues against it that I know of.
__ Seems it should increase effectiveness of the pump by a percentage-point.
Plus...
That may even prevent break-downs of the pump, as I've found a (small) number of them seized-up due to small-bits (like very short & thin wire pieces) found (not in between the gear-teeth, but) in-between the back-side of one of the gears & inside-wall of the pump.
If that very thin space -("End play" / slop) were to be reduced to "nil" -(near zero), then such small bits of metal would have no chance to slip-in and get jammed-in between there !
__ Twice, (but only once in a DUKE), I added oil from a freshly-opened can of oil (Pennsoil in the case of my DUKE), and only miles later, the oil-pump got sized-up !! ...
I was once riding my very first Mark-III heading out into the country, after having just added the fresh can of oil at a filling-station on the out-skirts of the city,, I was just cruising-along steady at about 40MPH when I thought I heard an ever so slight single metallic-sounding snap from my motor...
Wondering what that might've been, I shifted from 4th to 5th and slowed-down about 5MPH, (at the time, I had 50/17t gearing), and continued-on like that for about a mile, keeping my ears open while wondering what might've happened.
Then not long after, I begain to notice my motor making more of a clacketty-noise. ...
__ Well later the next day, I checked into the motor and found no oil under the ex.valve-cover and a sloppy/loose rocker-arm, then next discovered that the tip-end of the oil-pump's drive-gear was sheered-off,, and then next, also badly worn rockers & cam-lobes !
__ The piece of very thin wire, later found in the pump, had had no problem slipping-through the mesh-screen of the oil-filter !
____ Concerning that filter... Always make sure ya get that less than perfectly stiff-&-straight extension's tip-end/snout properly located into it's female receptor-hole ! - (Hope there's no ladies taking any offense!?
)
Cuz more so than not, I've found that while turning those filters inward, the tip-end won't exactly find-home (on it's own)... So when it starts to resist turning inward (after about 20% of it's threads have turned-in, with ease), then instead of FORCING it any further,, instead, just back-out a partial-turn and FEEL it's tip-end find-home, before then continuing-on screwing inward & torquing-it-down !
__ If you've ever found one of those oil-filters all warped-up, (and who of us hasn't ??), you now know that a previous oil-changer had no clue of what he (or she!) was actually doing !
Dukaddy-DUKEs,
-Bob