I cutt the threaded adapter off the actual pickup tube. Mill/ drill the inlet of the pump all the way into pump. Then I just slip the tube in however far I want it in the housing and silicon bronze tig it to the pump housing. Hot ticket, gets rid of the bottle neck in the pump, tube, and fixes the potential prob the op had. This is what I have done to all of our good sb stuff for yrs, works great. The silicon bronze is high vibration proof. No chance of ever breaking the weld.

The pick up is about 1/4" off the floor of the pan, I'm thinking I'll fab up something to go on it to rest on the bottom of the pan. I did tig braze a good spot weld on it with silicon bronze.