Oil Pressure Gauge

My oil pressure gauge has been acting funny since I first bought my jeep about 3 years ago. Whenever you start the engine the needle shoots straight up to 80 psi and stays there until you cut the engine off. Is there a way to test the gauge and sending unit to tell actually what's broken? Also if I do get a replacement aftermarket gauge will I have to replace the sending unit with an aftermarket one as well?

 

Mech or Elec gauge? If its elec the sending unit could be bad, You can always check it with a cheap mech gauge. Just my .02 but I prefer Mech over elec anyway. I would start by replacing the sending unit, cheap and easy check

 

Electric gauge with the single wire coming off the sending unit.

 

I would first try and test with a mech gauge, if not then I would replace sending unit. Available at your local flaps pretty cheap

 

I found this great site for the specifics.

http://www.4x4wire.com/jeep/tech/electrical/gauges/

If you can get around with a test meter, you can track it down. The senders are notoriously bad, and not very easy to come up with. My guage was fine, sender bad and gave the same symptoms you state. When it first happened I had a good pucker moment from the driver's seat. The easiest fix is to get a mech guage and plumb it in.

The original guages were made by stewart warner and are not available. However, S-W has resources for getting the original guage rebuilt if so desired.

http://www.sw-performance.com/index.php?page=faq&id=6&q=45

Good luck

Switzer

 

That article was very interesting and helpful, thanks. I didn't know that Stewart-Warner made the gauges, that was a interesting tidbit of information. This is kinda beside the point but, should the oil and amp gauges in my 73 cj5 be illuminated? There aren't holes in the back for a bulb, but there's a colored transparent part of the outer rim of the gauge where it looks like light would shine in on.

 

Actually they are. The brakets that affixed them to the dash had a hanger that suspended the light above the guage. Two small slits on top of the guage allowed the light in to illuminate them. Also, if you look inside the rim of the guage at an angle near 12 o'clock it will say S-W and #XXXXX.

Secondly, I highly recommend replacing the guages and senders with S-W. They are considerably more expensive, but worth every penny. The customer service is phenomenal as well. They can also provide you with an "original" look.

 

Oh allright, that explains quite alot. I went to stewart-warner's website and was looking at their "standard plus" gauges. The only sizes they came in were 2-1/32" and 2-1/16". Which one of these is the correct size, or am I going to have to modify something to get them to work?