Oil pump pickup

I was changing the oil in my 55 cj5 today for the first time and after the oil stopped draining, I stuck my finger in the hole to see how much oil stays in the pan. Doing so I noticed a lot of sludge, so I dropped the oil pan. I was looking at the pickup and it looks like there is some sort of material that acts like a filter in the pickup, is this true or is mine full of crude that needs to be cleaned?

 

IIRC, there is a mesh covering on the pickup, but no "material" or other filtering device. Sounds like it needs a cleaning.

 

Mine looks like mesh material inside the pickup. I will try rinsing it with diesel oil and see what it looks like.

 

Be sure to pull the cover off and clean inside. I found a lot of junk in mine that you couldn't see with the cover on.

 

You think all that junk is silicone ?

 

That's what I thought it was. This was the first rebuild of the engine which was over 50 years old at the time, so it could have collected the stuff for a while. The pivot in the pickup arm makes it so that the pickup floats at the top of the oil. I figured that the dried silcone would float on the top too, so it was getting pick up. Never did verify that silcone floats in oil though.

 

Thanks all, I didn't realize that I can take apart the pickup. I will look into it tomorrow.

 

I took mine apart today and found sludge and mud. It's clean now. Thank goodness I took it apart. I hate the thought that I might have put it back together with all that mess in there. Getting closer to having this back on the road.
I'm thinking the mud got there through the sloppy fitting oil filler tube. I have sealed it with ATV glue.