88 oil pressure sending unit help

[ma19]

im pretty sure my sending unit is shot. it shows no oil pressure most of the time and i no that aint right or it would have done blown up. i dont have a clue where the sending unit is located or how mush they cost . any help is appreciated

 

[Mean Green]

Your oil pressure sender should be on the back of the engine by the distributer. There not to expensive, a delco one is usually $20-$35 or so in general They can be a ***** to change though on the TBI motors, as the sender is plastic and cracks/breaks rather easilly. So be carefull of that, when you go to change er out! Also if the sender is bad, usually your "CHECK GAUGE" light comes on, is that the case with yours?

 

[ma19]

yea the check gauges comes on at the times when its settin on 0 oil pressure but sometimes it will read bout 15 or 20 and then the check gauges goes off

 

[Mean Green]

Are you sure that it's the switch? Is your motor running low on oil, or use a lot between oil changes? I've seen cases like this, where someone will come in saying that they have low oil pressure, and it ends up being they where really low on oil.

 

[ma19]

naw she aint low i check it at least once a week because my oil pressure gage dont work

 

[Mean Green]

Alright thats great! Then it's either your Oil Pressure Sender, or it could possibly be a faulty part inside the cluster. Either way your looking at a pretty cheap fix

 

[ma19]

thats good to hear . i appreciate it man

 

[Mean Green]

No problem bud! And if you it ends up being the cluster, i do have a cluster out of a 88' that has 144,*** miles on that i could sell ya!

 

[DRAGGIN95]

Word on the previous statement's, except for one thing, I have worked on several 87,88,and 89 TBI motor's that had 2 seperate sender's, the one under the distributor on those model's is only for the oil dummy light, and the actual pressure sender is above the oil filter on the driver's side. You can tell 2 way's first if the sender under the distributor is very short like 1 in. long then it's for the light, and also if you can see the oil pressure sender on the side of the motor beside the driver's side exhaust collector. I have seen 88's and 89's both way's so I would check first, also if you want to change to the unitized verison that all the 90 and up model's came with you can, all it require's is the new longer oil pressure sending unit that also has the sender for the light built in, and the wiring pigtail from the junkyard, and you just connect the 3 wires from the existing 2 different sender's to the new pigtail for the single unit, and the wires are even the right color code already so there is no guesswork.

 

[Mean Green]

Word on the previous statement's, except for one thing, I have worked on several 87,88,and 89 TBI motor's that had 2 seperate sender's, the one under the distributor on those model's is only for the oil dummy light, and the actual pressure sender is above the oil filter on the driver's side. You can tell 2 way's first if the sender under the distributor is very short like 1 in. long then it's for the light, and also if you can see the oil pressure sender on the side of the motor beside the driver's side exhaust collector. I have seen 88's and 89's both way's so I would check first

That is some great information!! I didn't even realize that the earlier TBI's utilized 2 senders! Great post man!!