I asked this question before and received answers but wasn't too worried then. Now my oil pressure has been climbing further, it shows over 70lbs, regardless of engine rpm's. I've checked the pressure with a test gauge at the block and get a perfect reading, so the problem must be with the gauge or another electrical issue. Is there the possibility for an adjustment at the gauge? or do I need a new gauge? It's an original gauge, almost 50 years old.
Thank you,
Tom
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Has the sensor been replaced? You can attach a multi-meter to the terminals and see if the output varies. If it does, the gauge is bad. If not, the sensor is bad or possibly a wiring issue.
Don’t know if it is a smoking gun for your case, but while the gauge may be 50 years old your sender may have been replaced sometime in those 50 years.
Senders come in two flavors. One designed for a gauge and one designed for an idiot light.
just something to consider during your troubleshooting.
Larry
There is a company in New Mexico that can convert the internals of your gauge to Stewart Warner and provide the correct sending unit. It has been my understanding that the water temperature gauge and the oil pressure gauge sending units were never a correct match for each other. I have a good friend and fellow Pantera owner that did this to his car and it worked perfectly.
well no issue with nice Italia..on Borletti..I suggest a redundant set
up...is a bit of work due to the different "tube" sizes...then you know where you are .. no guess..
(we know that tightening the adapter is a bit tricky as we need ground for the stock device ..see previous/older comments ..)
save is save right..
..and I will place at the rear window..picture shows just a test set up..winter over hier 
Matt
My gauge is original, but I replaced the sending unit last year when I was starting to get high pressure readings. The readings did not change, but after a test I was satisfied that the high pressure readings were coming from something other than the actual oil pressure. Now it's more of an annoying issue, seeing the needle pegged to the far right. Can you provide me with the name of the company that converts gauges to Stewart Warner. I haven't studied the gauges, but they must be able to open them without damage.
Thank you
Jffr is probably referring to MoMA Manufacturing. I had a poor experience with them though. I had a defective coolant temp gauge that I wanted SW workings installed into. I told “Joey” not to bother diagnosing the problem, just put the SW “guts” into it. Didn’t hear anything for weeks, so I started calling and leaving messages. They finally e-mailed me, letting me know the gauge was defective and the cost to repair it would be about $375. I reminded him that I just wanted SW workings installed. He said that would cost more but he couldn’t even look at it for quite a while as he was very busy. I told him to forget it and send the gauge back to me. He charged me $60 for diagnosing the problem and return shipping. I ended up buying a brand new gauge from Wilkinson for $125! I’ve had this type of work done by North Hollywood Speedometer and Palo Alto Speedometer and have been very happy with both.
When I reassembled 2511 I wanted to switch from black bezels on my gauges to chrome bezels. I had a special order VDO fuel gauge supplied by Dennis back in the 1990s, apparently factory-modified for the OEM tank sender.
I wanted the VDO innards switched into a chrome bezel housing. I attempted multiple times trying to contact Hollywood speedometer with no response. I finally wound up going with West Valley Instruments in Reseda. The process was drawn out and not as correct a match to the other gauges as requested or outlined, but close enough considering the several months the process had taken
as I tell all new owners when they ask what vendors they should purchase parts from, nobody bats 1000. You’ll just have to deal with the different vendors and you will develop your own good guy and bad guy list
for me Hollywood Speedometer is not an option, and West Hills is questionable at best.
YMMV
Larry
Tom, be sure that the sender is mounted in the back of a 351-C block. There's a second oil pressure port just over the fuel pump mount in front that, if used will give higher oil pressure readings that won't agree with anyone else's engine.
Don't expect too much from the stock oil gauge. I once assembled eight (8) different senders of the same brand and tried them one at a time on my engine. I got six (6) different readings from 5 to 15 psi apart. I added a mechanical gauge on a tee fitting with the sender; now if I want to know the actual psi, I get out and look at that mechanical gauge. The dash gauge only I use to be sure the engine is running. The stock water temp gauge is almost as bad.
thank you for your thoughts,
That gauge worked for 50 years, so it's probably too much to ask for more time. I checked the pressure with another gauge and it's fine, so for the time being I'll let it be. It will probably let me know immediately if I have no pressure, but I suspect I'll know that before the gauge tells me.
Tom
