New issue with my 51

[konrad]

So I had some more work done on my 51 Deluxe and picked it up yesterday.  Halfway (maybe about 10 miles) home I noticed my Oil Pressure Gauge was no longer working.  After a moment of panic, I checked the Temp Gauge and the operating temp seemed fine, so my thought was there was a problem with the gauge itself and I continued home with no issues.  That gauge was working the last time I drove the car, including when I took it in.

I'd had the following work done in this round:  Had my generator replaced with a new 6 volt alternator, had my emergency brake fixed with a new rear cable, had a new set of brake shoes from Willow Run arced and installed (breaking is much, much better now), had my headlight switch rewired to bypass the rheostat since it was no longer working, had him check out the clock to see if it was perhaps just missing a ground line (which was the problem with my wipers, fixed in a previous round of work.  Turns out there was no power connection to the clock so he ran one, and presto, I now have a working clock.

My first thought was that perhaps in that work under the dash he might have inadvertently bumped or disconnected a wire to the gauge, but then in talking with him he said that gauge was entirely mechanical and had no electrical connections.

Just curious if anyone here has any ideas on what could have caused the failure, given the scope of the work he did?  I know I can rule out the brake work, but is there something he could have done in either the alternator or under dash work that could have caused this gauge to suddenly stop working?

[dogwalkfinds]

Check the line from the engine to the gauge for any leaks (you would probably have noticed by now). If line is not leaking you should confirm that your engine actually has oil pressure - oil pumps fail, oil pressure bypass springs fail, engines fail. Your gauge might be correct. Confirm with another gauge if you can.

[konrad]

Check the line from the engine to the gauge for any leaks (you would probably have noticed by now). If line is not leaking you should confirm that your engine actually has oil pressure - oil pumps fail, oil pressure bypass springs fail, engines fail. Your gauge might be correct. Confirm with another gauge if you can.

If the oil pump had failed, wouldn't the engine have started overheating within a few miles?  My first rule of troubleshooting an issue is always, if something has changed, then something's changed, what's changed?  In this case it was new work on the car that may have caused a simple issue, given the gauge was working when I dropped it off, not working after I picked it up...

[rrdcorvair]

The oil pressure gauge IS electric, not mechanical.  The Frazers have a pressure line running to the dash gauge but the Kaisers have an electric wire running from the pressure sending unit, small round unit on the side of the motor - down just behind the front exhaust pipe.  heck the connection on there, sometimes the nut and wire end get loose or rusty.  More often the trouble is there.  Unusual for the dash unit to fail....but it can happen that the wiring was disturbed during the wiring for the clock as he would have been under/behind the dash.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The 1951-52 Kaiser Oil Pressure sender is located at the right rear of the engine block hear the flywheel area.  You can see it in place on the block in Figure 1-3 of the 1951 Kaiser Illustrated Parts list.  It is part number 207415 and is set up to work with the pressure range of the oil pressure gage.  The gage parameters were changed on the 1953 Kaiser and has a different part number; they are not interchangable.  I had a sender on my second 1952 Kaiser deLuxe and testing it after removal showed an internal fault in the sender was the cause. 

When installing the sender, my experience with replacing the sender strongly suggests you wrap the threads on the sender (going into the block) with teflon tape (like plumbers use when installing pipes) for added sealing. 

[konrad]

The oil pressure gauge IS electric, not mechanical.  The Frazers have a pressure line running to the dash gauge but the Kaisers have an electric wire running from the pressure sending unit, small round unit on the side of the motor - down just behind the front exhaust pipe.  heck the connection on there, sometimes the nut and wire end get loose or rusty.  More often the trouble is there.  Unusual for the dash unit to fail....but it can happen that the wiring was disturbed during the wiring for the clock as he would have been under/behind the dash.

Many thanks Bob, that was my first thought given after 10 miles of driving there was no increase (apart from normal) in engine temp.  Given he also fixed the emergency brake cabling, seems it might be possible he could have bumped that wire underneath while he had it on the lift as well, but of course I'll have to have him check it at both ends.  At this point I'm probably not going to worry about it till spring as I'm about to put Betsy to bed for the coming bluster blasts with intermittent flurries of chunky rain. 

[konrad]

The 1951-52 Kaiser Oil Pressure sender is located at the right rear of the engine block hear the flywheel area.  You can see it in place on the block in Figure 1-3 of the 1951 Kaiser Illustrated Parts list.  It is part number 207415 and is set up to work with the pressure range of the oil pressure gage.  The gage parameters were changed on the 1953 Kaiser and has a different part number; they are not interchangable.  I had a sender on my second 1952 Kaiser deLuxe and testing it after removal showed an internal fault in the sender was the cause. 

When installing the sender, my experience with replacing the sender strongly suggests you wrap the threads on the sender (going into the block) with teflon tape (like plumbers use when installing pipes) for added sealing.

Many thanks Jack!  I'll check that out in my parts book and start checking around for a replacement.  Sounds like the sort of part I want to have on hand as a spare anyway (inferring my current problem IS just a wiring issue). 

[Gordie]

Contact the guy who was just under your dash and tell him the problem.  He will probably have you bring it in so that he can check to see what happened.

[konrad]

Contact the guy who was just under your dash and tell him the problem.  He will probably have you bring it in so that he can check to see what happened.

I've already talked to him a couple times.  First he told me the gauge was not electrical, but when I called him back with the info Bob gave above, he said he realized after he got off the phone that it was indeed an electrical gauge, and that yeah, he probably caused it when he was working under the dash.  I mentioned the connection to the sending unit too, so he'll be checking both ends once I take it back in to him.  Won't be till spring though as I want to get her into storage for the winter before he'll likely have time to look at it again.  He's told me not to worry, he'll take care of it, and I know he will.  So far he's done everything I've asked and his prices have been very reasonable, and I'm sure that if he finds it's the connection at either end (or between) there will be no charge to fix it.

If I have any complaint at all about his work, it's that it usually takes longer than he initially quotes me. 

[Fid]

If I have any complaint at all about his work, it's that it usually takes longer than he initially quotes me.

That is typical when working on these old cars as you never know what stubborn, rusty or worn fasteners you may run into. Things are old and brittle and often break when they're worked on etc.  Cut the guy some slack if his work is good!

[konrad]

That is typical when working on these old cars as you never know what stubborn, rusty or worn fasteners you may run into. Things are old and brittle and often break when they're worked on etc.  Cut the guy some slack if his work is good!

I probably should have worded that:  "If I had any complaint..."

I don't really, and do not begrudge him the time needed to get things right.