justinm,
you were exactly right.
upon more thorough inspection I found a hairline crack in the first stage housing.
the crack went through the gear cavity to one of the bolt holes, which is why the oil was leaking out of all plates simultaneously. we are currently exploring having the cracked housing (which is aluminium) replicated via CNC- because the pump, new, runs about $1300...
Thanks for your reply.
This is ONLY to be used to report flooding, spam, advertising and problematic (harassing, abusive or crude) posts.