Thanks, I kinda wish I could blame it on a previous owner. I bought it "new" and installed it my self at the beginning of last summer. I suspect now that this pump was in someone else's hands before I got it. I'm pretty peeved .

The bearing in the back plate has been noisy since day one and required wiggling it to "just the right place" to get it to run quiet. I now know what that was. It started up and ran quiet after I set the back plate in place.

I haven't, yet, been able to find a parts list for the motor to confirm the screws are missing. When I had it on the bench, I couldn't see threads or broken screws through the little holes but I could have easily missed them. I could see that the holes do line up between the windings which tells me that something should be there.

I agree that the video's a little off message regarding lubricant but he does wipe the sealing surfaces down with alcohol after using the vegetable oil. I didn't need any assembly lube to get the ceramic disk and rubber cup set in place. You definitely don't want any lube on the shaft or inside the impeller side of the seal as it needs to grip the shaft and spin with it.