195.6 engine oil pump vaseline packing....

I know they said to do this in the TSM - but I never have. I use assembly lube and oil in the pump and hand prime every oil pump during an engine rebuild. I do not use a drill or fancy adapter - never have seen the need. You can generate good pressure with a speed handle and bit correct for the pump type. I've hand primed Chevrolet, Ford, AMC, etc. I prefer the feel of the oil pump as to using a drill where you can't tell what's going on. . 

The vasoline I suppose was AMC's method to ensure that the things got primed and the pump worked because they knew mechanics would otherwise, well, not all of them really paid attention to detail and if they simply said "do this" then they covered their butts if a lazy mechanic was working on it. I suspect most back then simply put them together and started them - not priming the pumps or ensuring oil went where it should. This helped cover those that simply tossed them together and started them. And Vasoline dissolves readily in oil - or should. We even used it to keep check balls in place in automatic transmission valve body. A trick shown by the college drivetrain guy. 

Don't need no damned drill and $20 tool or adapter when you have a speed handle -  I got up to 50 psi and saw oil at every rocker arm, etc. The blue hose is my mechanical pressure gauge. 
I do use assembly lube or something "sticky" to ensure the pump gears stay lubricated until I'm ready to prime things. Dry pumps don't prime easily. 

tomj wrote: The 195.6 flathead and OHV cannot be primed that way -- the oil pump has it's own gear, and meshes with the camshaft directly, not via the distributor. That's the fundamental issue. The 232 is different. I have an old distributor stripped to shaft and body, I can chuck the thing in a battery drill and run it till it stalls.

Yeah, I forgot the subject of your post was the flathead.......... can't prime those. 
But the TSM does talk about packing with vasoline. You were not imagining that at all. 

That answers the petroleum jelly aspect but as has been noted the 196 engine both flathead and OHV can not be spun because the oil pump gear connects directly to the camshaft.

Never worked on a 196, but I took a 1/2 gallon garden sprayer and put a valve, gauge and pipe fitting adapter on the hose.  Screw it into the oil-pressure-sender port and pre-lube them that way.  I had oil coming out everywhere it needed to be and it was pretty easy to build up to 30 psi or so.

Haven't read all the posts but I always pack a 195.6 with petroleum jelly and oil pressure picks up every time.  Joe