Oil pump drive gear stuck

AJ/FormS said
The bushing has to be reamed/burnished AFTER being installed.
But hang-on
If you can rotate the drive gear, then it is not stuck in the bushing, and that's sortof a good sign. And yes if you can rotate it, that is the same as rotating the engine.... at this point because neither the worm gear nor the Hex is yet engaged.
Normally the worm engages the cam first, then right afterwards, the pump.
You probably already know this, but I think it's worth mentioning; The slot in the top wants to be synchronized to the driverside front intake bolt with the engine at TDC compression of #1 cylinder. Because of the worm drive, that intermediate shaft rotates into place, while almost simultaneously engaging the oil pump;and for a newbe it usually takes several attempts to get this all done. The point is that this is really difficult if the I-shaft bearing won't easily enter the bushing, and even worse if it won't come out.
Find out what the problem is and fix it. If you can spin the I-shaft, then the issue is probably that the I-shaft bearing is not entering the bushing; probably..

Yes, was trying to drop gear into proper position for alignment then got the rude awakening. You lost me at i shaft bearing, you mean the just the I shaft not fully entering the bushing? I know that it is tight so far and it needs to go down another 5 inches or so to engage the camshaft gear and oil pump. Evidently made a mistake in assuming builder had burnished the bushing or else the mopar performance I shaft is slightly larger than the old stock one. If I turn it with a screwdriver there is slight resistance and I can't pull it back up. I don't want to force it down because it may not align exactly with the hex drive in the pump and ruin it. Even if it did align l think it would still be too tight to pull up if needed if it wasn't indexed correctly. To burnish the bushing I still need to get the I shaft out. At this point just don't know how to get it out without pulling the intake since it is too tight to pull up. Too tight to pull up and too tight to go down. Am open to suggestions though.