Date:         Tue, 6 Jul 1999 01:50:50 -0700
Reply-To:     John Scheckel <jscheckel@NUTLEY.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Scheckel <jscheckel@NUTLEY.COM>
Organization: John Scheckel Architect
Subject:      Re: oil pressure
Comments: To: lschelin@ix.netcom.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Lee Schelin wrote:
>
> John: Could you have put the rings in wrong? If the only thing you did was
> replace the pistons, I would start trouble shooting there. You have two
> oil sender units, one in the rear of the motor near the oil pump and the
> second on the drivers side of the motor near the middle. You don't have a
> buzzer going off do you? If so, it's the sender on the drivers side of the
> engine.
>
> Lee...
>
> John Scheckel wrote:
>
> > Well this weekend, just for fun, I decided to change the pistons on my
> > '87 wolfsburg.  all went great until I started the beast.  It started
> > fine, however, the low pressure oil light came on and refused to go
> > out.  I would dearly appreciate comments from the list of obvious
> > problems that I may have overlooked.
> >
> > What I did so far:
> > checked all wiring for continuity, its good
> > checked the switch for proper grounding, it grounds between the
> > connector and the body of the sender.
> > cleaned out the sender, didn't see anything in it and didn't see
> > anything come out when cleaned.
> > Checked all connections in th eengine compartment, they are good.
> >
> > While I rebuilt, I didn't touch the sender, just disconnected it.
> > Previous to rebuild oil pressure sender worked fine.
> >
> > Anxiously awaiting any reply, even the humorous, ('cause it would come
> > in handy just now).
> >
> > tia.
> > John S

It turns out to have been nothing too serious.  The oil pump was not
primed and therefore not able to pump any oil to were it needed to be.
What I did to remedy the situation was to fill the oil filter completely
with oil and restart the engine.  It worked.  There was enough pressure
behind the pump to provide suction to bring oil into the pump and be
pushed into the rest of the engine.

It works great now.

thanks for the replies.
John S