Recirculating flow path for gear pump

A gear pump includes a pump body having a pair of cylindrical gear chambers, and high pressure and low-pressure fluid ports into the chambers. A pair of cover plates enclose the open ends of the pump body. A drive gear on a drive shaft and a driven gear on an arbor shaft are rotatably supported on a pair of bearing assemblies within the gear chambers, with the drive shaft extending through an opening in at least one of the cover plates for rotation of the gears. A recirculating flow path is provided to draw fluid from the high pressure fluid port along the sides of the gears, between the bearings and the sides of the gears, axially through the bearings from the inner side of the bearings to the outer side of the bearings, and through channels formed in the respective adjacent cover plates to direct the fluid to a pair of return bores in the pump body. The return bores are parallel to one another and to the rotational axis of the gears, and tangentially intersect the low-pressure fluid port in elongated, arcuately-extending elliptical openings to direct the fluid into the central region of the intermeshing gear teeth.