To those with Oil Guage flicker...

[bcost882]

if it was an actual low pressure problem for me The amount of time (sorry guys you are gunna kill me) I drove with the guage reading nothing I would have a dead engine, or a serious knock and there is nothing but the tick that most 3.0Ls have. There is something wrong i dont get a pressure light when it is at zero so it might be a ground inside the cluster.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Yeah most of the time its just a bad sensor. I plan on doing the resistor mod one of these days but not until I replace the oil pressure sending unit.

 

[oldfordman]

a quick thought- A lot of 3.0's have had problems with the cam position sensor going bad. Located in the back of the block, about where you would find a distributor. The sensor is driven off the back of the cam, and the bottom of the shaft drives the oil pump, just like an old style distributor. What happens is the bronze gear wears out, the shaft stops spinning, you lose oil pressure, end of engine. Along with adding a real gauge, it is worth the time to pull the sensor and check it. There is a procedure to make sure you don't mess up the timing, do a search for "Cam Sensor replacement" to find it.

 

[KYEdge]

My cam sensor was replaces a few months ago when the bearing started to go bad.

 

[KYEdge]

I dunno what is going on... I've got a new symptom, but I dunno how long it has been going on since it is kind of hard to see.

The voltage fluxuates slightly while the the truck is at idle. I haven't hooked a meter up to it yet to see how much, but it is enough that the charge needle moves up and down and if you watch closely enough you can see the dash lights get brighter and dimmer. When you hit the gas the charge jumps up and everything gets brighter for a second and the charge needle raises then it drops back to normal and everything stays steady as long as the RPMs are above 1000. If I park facing a wall I can actually see the headlights get brighter.

Like I said I have no idea how long this has been happening because you can only see it at night and only if it is totally dark and the RPMs aren't steady (like when driving down a dark highway).

I don't know if it is connected to the oil gauge flicker or not. It seems like it could be tied to a bad ground though it could also be the alternator and not be related to it at all. If it is the alternator though then I'm about ready to say the hell with Ford because no one can make parts for them. This is the fourth alternator I've put on this truck and the fifth since I've had it if I count the one that was on it when I bought it. I can understand the remans from Autozone all being crap; but this was a brand new one.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Sounds like its a bad ground. Or your battery is going bad and your alternator is pulling most of the weight. Or your battery cable ends/terminals are unclean.

 

[KYEdge]

I've thought bad ground the whole time, but I can't find one that looks bad. I finally found the body to frame ground under the passenger door (I dunno how I missed it the last time I looked, I just went right under it and never saw it), and I cleaned it up though it really wasn't that dirty. It didn't seem to make a difference.

The battery could be bad... but with the truck off it still shows over 12 volts.

 

[ranger1996]

so where exactly is the ground wire for the oil pressure gauge on a 1996 ranger 2wd. im havin an issue with my gauge too. my guage bounces a little when i idle and when i take off a stop the oil pressure goes down, then when the rpm's get high enough then the pressure seems to be ok. but i have noticed the truck doesn't run as smooth. does anyone know what my problem is??.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Hmm... well I'm not sure cause usually when the power on everything drops...either the alternator isn't pulling its weight in which case the battery would be pretty dead anyways. or there is a bad ground or power connection not allowing all the power needed for everything.

Your battery might still have the juice to say its got 12v but that doesn't mean its still in hte best of shape. I would go get it tested just to make sure

 

[KYEdge]

This is so frustrating.

Now it feels like the truck might be stumbling and almost stalling at low RPMs/idle. It might be my imagination but the truck might even be weaker than normal.

Now I dunno if I should just replace the alternator with an expensive one, or take it somewhere for an expensive total diagnostic.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

mine has some oil gauge issues too.
it stays dead for a minute or 2 when i start it cold.
it works fine all day long, its only on cold starts.
so deff the sensor is messing on mine.

 

[ROCKRIDGE]

Brought the RANGER out of storage and this Oil Gauge flicker started. Only when warm and after 30min drive, needle would wild flicker at idle. Read many threads on this - forums 4L and 3L and started with all the advice, got to the sender and mine was indeed the oil pressure sending unit, it was leaking some oil

 

[Ricksrides]

This is so frustrating.

Now it feels like the truck might be stumbling and almost stalling at low RPMs/idle. It might be my imagination but the truck might even be weaker than normal.

Now I dunno if I should just replace the alternator with an expensive one, or take it somewhere for an expensive total diagnostic.

Just curious did you ever figure out the issue of the oil gauge flickering?