Makes sense to me. And I forgot about the hub on the other side and was afraid you had to use a faceplate.

 

Another update..

Last weekend:

Tried a few things, took more measurements and put it back together. Still had the tick. Decided it was time to ditch the cam and lifters and ordered up a different cam and lifter kit.

Yesterday I decided to pull out the cam and lifters and get prepared for the new stuff coming. Since I had some time, I decided to pull all the lifters apart and check them out. I found two lifters were missing the little spring for the internal check valve. Of course it was the two I didn't check.

New parts came this morning. Decided to pull apart all the new lifters, clean and inspect. This set looked good. Got it all together and did cam break-in. All is good now. All this over two tiny springs.


The spring that was missing is circled in red with arrow pointing to it.





Edit: Forgot to tell you I was in contact with Comp Cams this whole time and they called today when I was putting the new cam in. I told them what I found and they told me to box everything up and send them back. They were very surprised to hear what I told them. They said they will take care of me ($$).
I also told them how dirty the new lifters were inside and they asked me to send them a pic of the bowl of mineral spirits I cleaned them in. Lots of sediment.

Also had to switch to a high-torque gear reduction starter. The old Ford style just didn't have the grunt to spin the engine when it was hot. All I could do was laugh at that one.

 

Good to hear you got it running with out the noise just sad you have to go thru all that crap to fix it.
Dave ----

 

Yes, glad you finally figured it out. What a bummer! Hope Comp comes through for your pains.

 

I'll let you know what they do for me. Hopefully they cover some of the gaskets too. Going to try to get the old parts shipped back Monday.