I hope its just my oil pressure gauge...

[bduke23]

On a recent three hour road trip home to visit my parents, I noticed that my oil pressure gauge started going all over the place. It would read anywhere from the "n" to the "a" in "NORMAL" on the gauge, and would change from side to side quite quickly. Everything felt and sounded the same about my truck, and it was still in the ok range, so I just kept driving. On the way home, it did the same thing for a while, and then settled into its normal position. It is acting very similar to when my tach and speedo failed on my last instrument cluster, so I think it is just this gauge going now too.

I still have the original cluster, which had a correctly working oil gauge. Is it possible for me to take them both apart, and put the working oil gauge in the new cluster? Or would I be better off to put in an analog oil pressure gauge on a pillar mounting pod or something?

 

[Mark_88]

It could be a loose wire...did you try checking the connections under the hood? I'm not familiar with the 3.0 wiring or where the oil pressure sender even is...but mine has just a single wire running into the cluster...if that's loose it could be why your gauge is all over the place...

Older Rangers it's a bit easier to change them...but I like the pillar clusters...I might add one to mine some day...once I get everything else fixed or upgraded...

 

[shane96ranger]

My first place I'd start is the sending unit.

 

[Hawk1339]

On a recent three hour road trip home to visit my parents, I noticed that my oil pressure gauge started going all over the place. It would read anywhere from the "n" to the "a" in "NORMAL" on the gauge, and would change from side to side quite quickly. Everything felt and sounded the same about my truck, and it was still in the ok range, so I just kept driving. On the way home, it did the same thing for a while, and then settled into its normal position. It is acting very similar to when my tach and speedo failed on my last instrument cluster, so I think it is just this gauge going now too.

I still have the original cluster, which had a correctly working oil gauge. Is it possible for me to take them both apart, and put the working oil gauge in the new cluster? Or would I be better off to put in an analog oil pressure gauge on a pillar mounting pod or something?

There have been plenty of threads on the subject so by now everybody should be aware that the stock oil pressure gauge is just a dummy, an "idiot gauge". The stock sending unit is merely a switch that closes at 8 PSI and the gauge will then unceasingly point at mid-scale, regardless of the engine temperature or RPM.

It is not difficult to make it a true pressure gauge. Replace the switch sender with a gauging sender, short the scaling resistor on the instrument cluster. The hardest part is tearing out the cluster to get to the resistor.

In the meantime, if this immediate problem is on a stock setup, I would suspect an intermittent connection somewhere, anywhere between the sender and the gauge. As for the gauges, on the 93 the gauge sections are modular. Gauge modules can be easily swapped between clusters of the same style (tach style or non-tach style). The modules pop out the front of the cluster and plug into mounting pins on the backplane.

 

[hondaxr650]

On a recent three hour road trip home to visit my parents, I noticed that my oil pressure gauge started going all over the place. It would read anywhere from the "n" to the "a" in "NORMAL" on the gauge, and would change from side to side quite quickly. Everything felt and sounded the same about my truck, and it was still in the ok range, so I just kept driving. On the way home, it did the same thing for a while, and then settled into its normal position. It is acting very similar to when my tach and speedo failed on my last instrument cluster, so I think it is just this gauge going now too.

I still have the original cluster, which had a correctly working oil gauge. Is it possible for me to take them both apart, and put the working oil gauge in the new cluster? Or would I be better off to put in an analog oil pressure gauge on a pillar mounting pod or something?

Yes, you can take the cluster apart and swap the gauges. If it worked before the swap, that's where I'd start.

 

[bduke23]

Ok I will try to find the sender unit first on the side of the block and trace the wire back to check any connections. Is there a way I can test the sender itself, for a proper voltage or something, to verify that its working correctly?

And yes the gauge in the old cluster worked fine, but I swapped out the clusters at the begining of spring this year and it has worked fine up until now. Every other gauge in the cluster works as normal as well, so I will assume for now that the connections at the back of the cluster are ok. If I cannot fix it by finding a loose connection somewhere, then I will swap out this broken one for the working one. Is it possible to do by just removing the dash trim, and without taking the cluster completely out? I remember that speedo wiring being a real pain to re-attach.

I also like the idea of changing it from a dummy gauge to a true pressure gauge. I suppose it won't have any type of scale on the gauge, but having a relative judgment is better than none at all. Is there currently a writeup on how to do this?

 

[Hawk1339]

I also like the idea of changing it from a dummy gauge to a true pressure gauge. I suppose it won't have any type of scale on the gauge, but having a relative judgment is better than none at all. Is there currently a writeup on how to do this?

See page 8.

http://users.isp.com/vmstep/stuff/rangerinst.pdf

 

[bduke23]

Thats exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

Edit: I have been looking at oil sender units to replace the switch with, and they look a lot different from the OEM switch. Are oil pressure sending units standardized, in terms of using the same threads? And if so, does this match the threads that the oil pressure "switch" uses? I am unsure of what will screw in place of my current switch, as I could not find the part number that he used anywhere.

 

[Hawk1339]

Thats exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

Edit: I have been looking at oil sender units to replace the switch with, and they look a lot different from the OEM switch. Are oil pressure sending units standardized, in terms of using the same threads? And if so, does this match the threads that the oil pressure "switch" uses? I am unsure of what will screw in place of my current switch, as I could not find the part number that he used anywhere.

A standard Ford oil pressure transducer. 100 PSI, 1/4" x 18 threads into the block, threaded post electrical connection. Compatible items available from all parts sources, I just happen to get mine from NAPA. Look for one for a 70's or 80's F-series pickup, it should fit.

It doesn't look like the stock Ranger sensor because it is a different item altogether. The stock sensor is just a switch so it is smaller. This is a transducer, a measuring device. It has a pressure diaphragm connected to a potentiometer, therefore it is larger and shaped differently.

https://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?A=MPEOP6091SB_0168184466&An=0

 

[bduke23]

Excellent thats what I needed to know. I knew the two parts would look different, but there was no scale to any of the pictures so I was not sure if the threads were the same or not.

 

[Mark_88]

A
https://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?A=MPEOP6091SB_0168184466&An=0

Cool! That's the one I have...didn't even realize it was a trans whatever...but I guess I should bet a better gauge to go with it...