swapped distributer, now no oil pressure.

[DukeGnarley]

so my old distibuter was bad, so i bought another old points style dizzy, and installed it on my '89 engine. after trying to start the car, i noticed that the fuel pump wasn't coming on (it's on an oil pressure activated switch), and my oil gage wasn't coming up.

So basically there's no oil pressure. i was pretty damn sure that the distributer was engaging the oil pump drive shaft, but to be sure we popped off the dizzy and used a drill to rotate the shaft... still no pressure.

so, how likely is it that my oil pump decided to die at the exact same time i changed the distributor?

my next step is to pull the pan and take out the pump, but i figured i'd check to see if you guys have any ideas before i do that.

-Duke

 

[iskwezm]

is the shaft all the way in the pump.might be ready to fall out or what about a bad gauge(or connection)

 

[DukeGnarley]

well both the oil pressure gauge and the oil pressure switch for the fuel pump aren't showing any pressure, so i'm assuming that i am in fact not getting any pressure. I guess it's possible that the shaft isn't all the way in the oil pump, but wouldn't it need to be for the distributer to be all the way down?

 

[Rusty67]

You can check to see if yer geting oil to the top of the heads by yanking a valve cover and spining the pump with the drill again. It is possible that your sending unit died and you are actually geting pressure.

 

[bsedwebt70-5.0]

Put a mechanical guage on the oil pressure sending unit mount hole to see what is happening -- also - if your 1989 engine is a "roller" engine you have to use a steel distributer gear. Older non-roller engines have cast iron camshafts and run cast iron distributer gears - if you mix them you will waste the cast iron gear (dizzy or cam - whichever is cast iron) very quickly.

 

[SoCalCruising]

When you turn the oil pump shaft with the drill motor (counter-clockwise), you should feel the drill motor load down quite a bit. Did that happen? If it spun freely, I'd suspect no engagement. Of course, your oil level is okay? You didn't change the oil during all this? ... just a stupid question.

 

[DukeGnarley]

yeah the oil level is fine, and i already swapped on the steel gear. My father was the one operating the the drill, so i'm not sure which direction he was using it. I'll have to try it again and make sure it's going the correct way.

 

[jasonn]

The oil pump shafts are supposed to have a clip on them. When you install them from below, this clip will keep it from coming out of the pump when pulling the dist. It is possible that the clip was down to far or not on at all and the shaft pulled out of the pump.

 

[joesgt281]

You say you swapped the dizzy gear....
any chance you didn't get it re-pinned and it's spinning on the distributor shaft?
when you crank the engine with the cap off, is the rotor turning normally?

 

[HistoricMustang]

You can check to see if yer geting oil to the top of the heads by yanking a valve cover and spining the pump with the drill again. It is possible that your sending unit died and you are actually geting pressure.

Yep, you will see oil coming out of the push rods at the lifters.

HistoricMustang
www.historicmustang.com