1984 2.8 oil pressure sender question...

[APF1984BII]

My father-in-law passed away recently and left me his old hunting rig, a 1984 BII XLT. The fuel pump was one of the first things to be replaced. While I was doing this, I decided to replace the oil pressure sender as well. The instrument panel carries the gauge, so I picked up the appropriate sender from my FLAPS. It was quite a bit larger than the one I was replacing, leading me to believe the original was the one for an idiot-light dash or possibly the later digital gauge dash. The new sender is large enough that the canister runs into the fuel pump body well before it's threaded in far enough to not leak. So, do anybody know, was there an adapter that this truck is missing in order to run the right sender? If so, is this adapter available or am I going to have to fabricate one? Or, would the digital-dash sender work in its place? Eventually, the plan is to swap the existing powertrain combo with a larger v6, 4-speed automatic transmission and newer t-case, but for now, I would like to monitor oil pressure on the original engine. Any/all input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - Chris

 

[duffy]

It sounds like they may have given you the wrong part.......

 

[APF1984BII]

That's certainly possible, duffy, since I'm the guy that looked it up and sold it, too. The Motorcraft part looked awfully similar, though. Looking at a previous post, however, it seems like one responder mentioned an adapter, the purpose of which was to get the sender out and away from the pump. More research necessary...

 

[duffy]

Older Fords (70's) used three different type oil pressure senders.....a small one which was simply a red light actuator, a larger one that looked similar to the red light actuator which electrically controlled a gauge indicating oil pressure from low to high and the last one was pretty large (about 2' in diameter and 2" long) which ran a gauge with actual oil pressure readings. I actually had all three on my 77' F250 HiBoy......I did not want to miss a drop in oil pressure. Just an FYI.....the red light sensor turned off at anything over 3/4 of a pound of pressure. It actually said that in the Owner's Manual.

 

[APF1984BII]

Thanks again, duffy. Yeah, seems the idiot light would not be the way to go. My panel is factory, pretty sure the oil pressure gauge is devoid of any numeric indicators. I think I found a smaller sender for the gauge: a Standard/Intermotor PS149 looks to be the size of a light sender, but advertises to be for a gauge. If so, that's what I'll start with. But I like your idea of redundant monitoring of the engine's life blood. Hmm, maybe a 3-gauge A-pillar pod... More details on the PS149 on Monday, when I work my part-time gig again. Until then, any/all input... you know the rest. Thanks again - Chris