I added the auto meter center console gauge pod and fuel, oil press., volt, water temp. gauges. This is an original non gauge 69 camaro. I have a sb 350 in it. On initial start up everything was working. Oil pressure was right about 50. Went out for a cruise and ended up losing my oil pressure gauge reading. I have gone back through my wiring and retightened all connections and grounds. Power and all grounds are daisy chained. The other gauges are working fine. The oil gauge when the car is off, the needle sits below zero just like the other gauges and when power is turned on moves up to zero like the other gauges. Except fuel which goes to tank reading. I am going to drain the oil pan and make sure I have the right amount of oil. But what else can I check? How do you check to see if the oil sending unit is bad? Could some teflon thread dope have gotten clogged up the sending unit fittings? Or is the guage bad? :confused:

Could be that the teflon is preventing the sender from grounding to the block? You could put a jumper on it and see how it reads. I had a sender grounding problem that registered as low oil pressure. It would go to zero also when the key was turned on.
I suppose it could have teflon goop in it...maybe take it off and spray some wd-40 in it? :shrug:
Lastly you could check the port by hooking up a cheap mechanical gauge...$20 or so at autozone.

It sounds like a sender issue to me. why are you going to drain the oil? if it was low enough to effect oil pressure you'd have lifters clacking like crazy. Also, don't you have a dipstick?

got to check for oil pressure at sender first. if it is wrong sender is no good. i went through 3 before getting a good 1.hook sender to a ohm meter and blow air in it ohms will change if it dont sender is bad.

It sounds like a sender issue to me. why are you going to drain the oil? if it was low enough to effect oil pressure you'd have lifters clacking like crazy. Also, don't you have a dipstick?

Just wanted to make sure the low reading wasn't because of not enoug oil. I have a dipstick (stock) but have switched to a Moroso 7 qt. low profile pan. I don't have any lifters clacking.

got to check for oil pressure at sender first. if it is wrong sender is no good. i went through 3 before getting a good 1.hook sender to a ohm meter and blow air in it ohms will change if it dont sender is bad.

I'm not sure what you mean by the wrong sender. It is the one the came with the auto meter gauge. What should the ohms read when air is blown in it?

Can I do a test to see if the gauge is good?

Have you ever thought about switching to a mechanical gauge? I use an Autometer mechanical oil pressure gauge and if it doesn't work it can only be two things, no oil or bad gauge.

The tests are detailed here:

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=65872&highlight=test+oil+sending+unit

The tests are detailed here:

http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=65872&highlight=test+oil+sending+unit

I did some of the checks in the thread. I used an ohm meter, one lead to the sending unit body and one lead to the engine block and the meter still sat on 0 ohms. So if I am reading the threads right it should not be an issue of the sending unit not being grounded. So that should suggest that the sending unit itself is bad. Correct? Am I missing something?

I'm NOT electrically inclined, but Everett's post about checking voltage makes sense to me.
It's a pain to pull that thing, but I'd pull it, clean it and reinstall it...before I'd consider declaring 'bad sender'. If you want some comparison readings, I can meter mine this evening when I get home from work.

you can test any gauge (and wiring) by removing the wire from the sending unit and putting the car in "run."

The gauge sgould "do something" and it should "do something different" if you ground the sender wire to the block.

I am going to to do that check Jim. Also will take out the unit and make sure there are no clogs from teflon thread sealer. Another question though. I am also installing a factory dash tach where the fuel gauge once was. What are the hook up wire connections that I need to make to run the tach? I am running an MSD HEI large cap dist. One wire for ground and one to the dist. cap marked for tach right?

For the tach, also need one 12V with key on feed.

Just thought I would report to what the problem was. I did the checks suggested and ended up having to remove the sending unit. What the problem was, was that there was a few little pieces of teflon tape sucked up in the sending unit hole. Cleaned everything up, reinstalled and I'm back in business. Got the tach all installed and running. No on to the next project!