i have a question regarding the oil pressure reading on my 53 chevy 235. i just finished rewiring the car for 12 volt from 6 plus new automterer gauges etc. i took the car out for a spin to test her out. the car ran great but my oil pressure gauge was not reading. had my dads mechanic take a look at it. thought he fixed the problem. took it out last week again. oil pressure gauge was responding at first but the same thing happened. over all the car runs great and isn't losing oil and isn't overheating. any thoughts suggestions would be apprecited.
Sounds like you are using an electric gauge (as opposed to mechanical) ... could you have a poor ground or loose connection? Some automotive items (not sure about electric gauges) get automatically grounded to when the unit is threaded into the block ... the body of the unit contacts the engine block and creates a ground. If this is the case with an electric gauge, you need to make sure the threads in the block (where the sender installs) are clean and you must not use any type of sealer (again, not sure if this applies to electric gauges). Also keep in mind that just because you bought a quality name like Autometer does not mean their parts are always good. You could have a faulty from new sending unit or the gauge itself. Might be an idea to pick up a cheap mechanical gauge (around $20 at Canadian Tire) to temporarily mount under the dash. This would allow you to still drive and enjoy your car (and monitor oil pressure) while trying to sort out the issue.
One other thought is this, did you use teflon tape during the install of the sending unit? Had a friend use teflon tape and a little bit ended up "flapping around" (inside the block where the sender installed) and occasionally the flap would block the sender from getting a reading and the gauge would go all wonky.
