Patent ID: 8303281

Claim:
In an oil pump assembly of the type having teeth of a drive gear meshing with teeth of a driven gear within a cavity provided in a housing and in which one side of the drive gear is axially rotated by a drive shaft extending through said housing and a corresponding side of said driven gear is axially supported for rotation from said housing on an idler shaft so that during rotation of the gears, oil is drawn into the cavity in an area where the teeth of the meshing gears diverge and oil under pressure is discharged from the cavity in an area where the teeth of the meshing gears converge, the improvement comprising: a) two axial bores which each extend inwardly respectively from an opposite side of said drive gear and from a corresponding opposite side of said driven gear; b) two stub axles each fixedly attached to said housing and respectively received in the said axial bores of said drive and driven gears; and c) first passageways in said housing and said stub axles for supplying pressurized oil discharged from said cavity to said axial bores so as to lubricate exterior bearing surfaces on said stub axles and on said opposite sides of said drive and driven gears.