Oil pressure gauge

[Cees Klumper]

Just to report that, as has been commented before, the oil pressure gauge reading may not be accurate. My '90 Bronco II is a case in point. When I first bought it a few years ago, the oil pressure read on the low side. Then it started to gradually improve, but then decline again until coming to a steady reading of 'just on the right leg of the N of NORMAL'. I thought it was odd that it moved this way over time.
So I decided to install a new Motorcraft sender, down at the front of the block, during my last oil change.
Now the gauge consistently reads 'on the right leg of the M', so an 'improvement' of almost half of the NORMAL scale.
I have a bit more faith in the current reading than the old one, only because it's a brand new factory sensor and the old one must have been quite old (from the looks of it quite possibly the 30 year, 242K mile original). But the main point is that I now worry less about the engine needing a rebuild soon. It uses just a bit of oil, not much, runs very strong and gets pretty good mileage. Maybe it was rebuilt or replaced at some point, I don't know (is it easy to check if it's at least the original engine?). I replaced the heads a year ago due to coolant loss.
Try swapping out your sender, see what happens. I am glad I did.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Maybe not the best solution... but a real set of gauges are way better then what Ford designed In.

 

[RonD]

1990 BII should have been using an oil pressure switch, so on or off, any changes in oil pressure gauge would be electrical not actual change in oil pressure
I think Ford changed most vehicles to a switch in 1987 or 88

Oil pressure switch is smaller, looks like this: https://www.fixya.com/uploads/images/7f668e6.jpg

Oil pressure sender(PS60) looks like this: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MF4AAOSwGwFhScta/s-l400.jpg
So much larger with a diaphragm inside to do true oil pressure

The switch just closes when oil pressure is above 5psi, and grounds the gauge, so doesn't need a larger diaphragm
Gauge would change based on alternator voltage, so could go up with RPMs like a true pressure gauge, and could change with any ground issues at the switch or wire connection


The dash gauge wiring can be changed to use the PS60 sender, just bypass a resistor on the back of the instrument cluster
Up to about 1995 clusters, after that the resistor was inside the gauge itself

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

What RonD said.

 

[Cees Klumper]

Well I believe you but my dashboard does have a real oil pressure gauge in it, and I am 99% sure it's the original dash etc. I have that bigger sender, the second picture

 

[RonD]

If you have the PS60 then its a real pressure gauge