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the oil light on my 79 special will come on every now and then for various lengths of time. i assumed it was an electrical problem. the only thing that worried me was that it would come on for awhile, then go out - in my thinking, if it were electrical it would occasionally blink on and off quickly. the last thing it did which was odd, was that at idle it would be off, but the more i revved the motor the brighter it got. this confused me even further - the only electrical explanation i could think of here was that it was shorting out just enough to where it got brighter and brighter the more volts the alternator cranked out.
so..... i just went to the nearest parts store and bought a $12 oil pressure guage. it reads ~20 psi at idle, and 60+ psi under throttle. I couldn't find anywhere in the manual what range this should be - i figure it can vary quite a bit but I assume I am fine with the pressure I'm getting.
It was at one time brought to my attention that a faulty oil sender switch can give a low oil pressure reading under higher pressures. I am thinking that is probably my problem.
Though I'm sure it's happened before, I personally have never really heard of a small engine having oil pressure problems unless the operator has run it out of oil.
My question is this: is there any reason why i would have perfectly good oil pressure 95% of the but have an occasional ~5 minutes here and there where the oil pressure is less than adequate? I am pretty much convinced my problem is electrical, however I am still somewhat unfamiliar with small engines and would rather not burn mine up.
so..... i just went to the nearest parts store and bought a $12 oil pressure guage. it reads ~20 psi at idle, and 60+ psi under throttle. I couldn't find anywhere in the manual what range this should be - i figure it can vary quite a bit but I assume I am fine with the pressure I'm getting.
It was at one time brought to my attention that a faulty oil sender switch can give a low oil pressure reading under higher pressures. I am thinking that is probably my problem.
Though I'm sure it's happened before, I personally have never really heard of a small engine having oil pressure problems unless the operator has run it out of oil.
My question is this: is there any reason why i would have perfectly good oil pressure 95% of the but have an occasional ~5 minutes here and there where the oil pressure is less than adequate? I am pretty much convinced my problem is electrical, however I am still somewhat unfamiliar with small engines and would rather not burn mine up.
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