I think that's exactly what's going on here Kenny. These pumps are very simple, pretty sure I'd have seen a problem w/ it. They way it sounds, it sure doesn't seem to be mechanical. I'll put the pump back together and get it back on the car and see what happens.
It didn't do this before I changed valve cover gaskets. I had em off to lash the valves and found one corner of a gasket sucked in. I'd noticed the vacuum had fallen off. New gaskets, vacuum is back up, now I have this annoying sound.