Oil pressure warning light AND a gauge

[73 Centurion]

Hi Guys,

It's always recommended to keep the warning lights functional when you add gauges. There isn't a lot of space where the sender is mounted. Most solutions involve a conglomerations of fittings to accomodate 2 different senders. I never came up with a solution I liked so I disabled the light and waited for a better solution.

My gauge started giving some bizarre readings and I decided to replace the sender and see if it fixed the problem. Doing some research on senders I found that VDO makes a sender with both functions. :xyxthumbs: I replaced the sender hooked up the warning light and now I have the warning glow if the oil pressure drops below 7 PSI and I have a gauge that works perfectly.

Once every few years you get a project that goes together easily, works as expected and takes less time than expected. This was one of those.

If you have an electric oil pressure gauge you might be able to find a sender like this that works with your gauge. I never knew they existed.

The first picture is the sender. You can see how simple it is. The picture is poor, but if you look closely you can see the Oil light is working in the second picture The final picture is where I mounted my gauge. It's in the old clock housing.

John

[Robroy]

Hi John,

That sure was a neat solution. From the pict it looks like you only have one wire from the sending unit? If so does that serve both gauge and w-light?

Myself I went doing the traditional T-brass solution to keep the warning light sending unit

On a totally different subject; did you see the PM I sent you a few days ago?

[Gum,beest]

John
I did know there are manufactures that made senders that take over the function from the original oil pressure switch
I used to have one on one of my older cars
But with my current oil gauge i have one terminal and the set up is the same as Per has

Per
On your sender you've got two terminals one is for the gauge
What function has the other terminal?
Isnt it possible that you also have a sender that capable to function as a replacement for the pressure switch

[Robroy]

Per
On your sender you've got two terminals one is for the gauge
What function has the other terminal?
Isnt it possible that you also have a sender that capable to function as a replacement for the pressure switch
Hi Erik,
At the moment I’m unable to find the instructions that came with the gauge to check, but I’m pretty sure that that other terminal couldn’t be utilized as a sender for the w-light. I believe it was for grounding in case you get grounding problems from using sealing compound on the brass fitting

[73 Centurion]

The sender has 2 wires on it. The other is facing directly away from the camera and doesn't show. The one you can see runs the light the other runs the gauge.

My first car died when they oil pressure dropped to zero. I didn't notice the gauge reading 0 until I started to hear noises from the engine. I sometimes wonder if a bright red light might have caught my attention a bit earlier.

Now I have both.

John

[Gum,beest]

I know John
Like i said i had one
And now on the Buick i measure everything
Vacuum (to see for instance if valves are leaking)
Air to Fuel Ratio
Water temp (incuding the "stop" and the "hot" light)
Engine oil temp (measured in the oil pan)
Engine oil pressure (incuding the oil pressure warning light)
Transmission oil temp (measured in the oil pan and mounted an extra oil cooler as well)
Mounted all these gauges and a intermittent wiper control in a panel below the dash and painted in the same color as the dash

Per
Normally the ground is achieved trough the housing of the switch
I have never seen one like yours
You can measure where the terminal is for
If you measure ground when the engine is off then it is a substitute for the oil pressure switch
Or if you have doubts about that measure the terminal and compare it with the original switch