Never occurred to me welding pickup tube could soften bypass spring. Should probly always pull spring before weld-braze the pickup...

I appreciate everyones thoughts on the matter. After initial rebuild of the motors I was getting 63-65 PSI running the oil pump with a drill on the bench. (prelube). I understand that Mercury used the weaker of the 3 springs in their pumps. I used new Melling M77 oil pumps with that weaker style spring. Tried a medium duty spring the other day and got 75 PSI with the drill. New oil pump and pick up was delivered today. More to follow.