Im about to put the front cover on my rebuild and i decided to block of the OMP. Should i take of the sprocket on the rod thats on the inside of the front cover or does it need to stay there?

 

yes you can take it out sence that plate would just be a dead end for the oil. i decided to take mine off after i rebuilt it and didnt want to take the front cover off.. so i took 2 nickles or dimes i dont remember and put them on the end of the shaft between the plate and the shaft so the shaft had no back and forward play to tear things up

 

by the way if you are looking for a good source for the 2 cycle oil go to walmart they have it for outbord boat engines in the jugs 7.50 for a bout 5 quarts or so of it. alot cheeper then buying the little bottles. i think if you mis 100/1 ratio it wil last you something like 120 galons of gas

 

If you do take out the shaft, you MUST block off the oil passage that used to supply it with oil. If you don't, there will be a large oil leak inside the front cover that will drastically lower oil pressure.