Holy Smokes. I just made some minor adjustments and it started right up in the right direction for the first time ever. It's been running for about an hour now without any problems.
The only thing i changed was, i cut back the rigid airline tubing that makes up the impeller about an 1/8 of an inch. This gave it some play to move back and forth on the stainless rod. Then i widdled the prop down a smidge. I plugged in the motor and it started right up the first time. I'm wondering if i could have just cut back the impeller and left the prop alone. AT least it's working and pushign a good amout of water. If it turns out to be that simple of a fix, that's amazing. Alls i did was use a razor blade to cut off some stuff.