ford cargo oil pressure

I have a 1515 cargo oil pressure has been running at just under half mark, then today guage has been doing weird things under load it was dropping back to almost nothing then all of a sudden it was back to normal could this be a faulty sender or sludge on the pickup anyone shed some light on this please

My vote would be to do the easy things first. Check the terminals and continuity of the sender wire.

Unless there is a catastrophic failure like a turned bearing etc erratic oil pressure indication should be somewhere in the sending/indicating system.

A blocked pick-up could do it too but more likely to be a more permanent drop in pressure.

The other guys probably have more suggestions.

Rapid .if check of wiring shows no faults remove sender on block and fit meckanical gage ,if oil presser ok sender dash gage or wiring faulty .peter

me thinkz the old oil guages were just a copper pipe up to the guage from the engine
they do clog up with time coz all it duz is send pressure up the line n not circulating the oil n can clag up
gentle air pressur up the line to push sum oil back out or try n get sum petrol in the line to try n thin down the ol oil may help
or
maynot
LOL

If you have a mechanical gauge like Swishy says you should do the aircraft trick and fill the line with sewing machine oil before hooking it back up. Stops clogging up and gives instant reading with a cold engine and thick engine oil.

Hi Rapid, me would be slipin down to Super cheap, or borrowing a known good test gauge from your local w/shop, fitting it to said engine &be watchin for any mis- behavin. If two gauges do the same thing, I would be thinkin the problem is eleswhere, pick up, pump, whatever My C Line gauge mis reads by at least 15psi, so at idle it scared the sh-- out of me. Above practise with a Good brand gauge proved she idles 20+ psi when at N.O.T., 50 on the road in top gear, electric shows just over 30. Me believes the manual gauge before the elec-tricky one

cheers fellars i will check it out over the weekend.
Rapid