Either my oil pressure sender failed or I've lost all oil pressure!
I had to do a ThermoQuad rebuild on my 440, so I took the opportunity to also remove the valve covers and intake manifold in order to clean them up and paint them. I did nothing to the crankcase or oil pump, and of course there aren't any oil galleries that become exposed in removing and replacing these items, so I think it would have been impossible for me to have screwed up the oiling system in any fashion because I did nothing to it.
After I removed the intake manifold, I noticed that the insulation on the yellow wire going from the engine wiring harness to the oil pressure sender had deteriorated due to heat and was falling off the wire, so I carefully cut off the old deteriorated wire and soldered a new wire onto the harness, putting a spade lug on the other end to push onto the oil pressure sender terminal. I had some trouble getting the spade lug to go on. And the fact that the oil pressure sender is so inaccessible on the back of the engine didn't help any.
When I fired up the engine, the dashboard oil pressure gauge said I had no oil pressure! When I removed that yellow wire from the sender and grounded it, the gauge went all the way to the right, so the gauge circuit is working (including the wire that I replaced).
With the yellow wire disconnected, an ohmmeter between the sender and ground shows an open circuit with the engine running, so I either have a bad sender or I really have no oil pressure!
I wonder if trying too hard to shove that spade connector onto the old sender sent it belly up? This must be an example of "if anything can go wrong, it will!"
I can't think of anything I could have done to lose my oil pressure, can you?? And how do you remove the old oil pressure sender? There doesn't seem to be enough room to get a wrench under it. Do you need one of those special "claw" wrenches? If so, what size?
Thanks in advance for taking pity on a fellow FABO member by trying to help me.
I had to do a ThermoQuad rebuild on my 440, so I took the opportunity to also remove the valve covers and intake manifold in order to clean them up and paint them. I did nothing to the crankcase or oil pump, and of course there aren't any oil galleries that become exposed in removing and replacing these items, so I think it would have been impossible for me to have screwed up the oiling system in any fashion because I did nothing to it.
After I removed the intake manifold, I noticed that the insulation on the yellow wire going from the engine wiring harness to the oil pressure sender had deteriorated due to heat and was falling off the wire, so I carefully cut off the old deteriorated wire and soldered a new wire onto the harness, putting a spade lug on the other end to push onto the oil pressure sender terminal. I had some trouble getting the spade lug to go on. And the fact that the oil pressure sender is so inaccessible on the back of the engine didn't help any.
When I fired up the engine, the dashboard oil pressure gauge said I had no oil pressure! When I removed that yellow wire from the sender and grounded it, the gauge went all the way to the right, so the gauge circuit is working (including the wire that I replaced).
With the yellow wire disconnected, an ohmmeter between the sender and ground shows an open circuit with the engine running, so I either have a bad sender or I really have no oil pressure!
I wonder if trying too hard to shove that spade connector onto the old sender sent it belly up? This must be an example of "if anything can go wrong, it will!"
I can't think of anything I could have done to lose my oil pressure, can you?? And how do you remove the old oil pressure sender? There doesn't seem to be enough room to get a wrench under it. Do you need one of those special "claw" wrenches? If so, what size?
Thanks in advance for taking pity on a fellow FABO member by trying to help me.
