Flickering oil light, near Sandusky Ohio

[Stray Catalyst]

Well, the road trip is off to a poor start.

1969 bus with a dual relief 1600dp with upright doghouse. Oil level is between the marks on the dipstick and the engine isn’t running hot. Sporadically, the oil light flickers - sometimes several minutes will pass between blinks, sometimes it’ll flicker for a few seconds but stops when I take my foot off the gas pedal. The Bentley manual has no info about this (or I overlooked it) but the Muir book says to clean the oil pressure relief valves and the sensor. I’m at a service area waiting for the snow to die down.

So, aside from those two steps, is there anything I can do? And is there anybody near Sandusky with garage space or at least cover where I can work on it? I’m 750 miles from home and headed for California, but if needed I can try to limp it home, where I have tools, garage space, and worst case scenario I have a couple of spare engines. But I’d really prefer to fix this and keep going west.
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196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[Randy in Maine]

If it were me, I would see if I could find a test gauge locally (ideally with a 10mmx1.0 mm thread pitch or an adapter that would allow me to use a 1/8" NPT gauge into the 10mmx 1.0mm hole. YOu want a gauge that reads to about 60 psi) and see if I really have an OP problem or perhaps the problem is just a bad sender or a poor connection.

Remember to get the OP light to go on at the dash, the sender grounds through the engine at about 2-8 psi.

Fill the oil level up to the top line.

[busdaddy]

I'd start by looking over the wire from the oil pressure sender very carefully, is it touching a heat riser and melting the insulation?, is the harness running between the fan shroud and carb loose and sitting on the throttle cable?
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[Clatter]

Most of your ordinary FLAPS will have a mechanical oil pressure gauge...

Here's to hoping your sender is acting up!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Stray Catalyst]

I don’t know anybody in this state, which makes the tester more difficult. I’ll remove the oil pressure switch and coil wire, and do the Muir test with a piece of paper to see if the oil spurts. As this symptom only occurs occasionally, generally at highway speed, it’s difficult to reproduce at a service area.
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196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[richparker]

[Stray Catalyst]

Thanks for the replies, I’ll get a mechanical oil pressure gauge and hope it’s the sending unit.
_________________
196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[Stray Catalyst]

The idiot lights on my bus are lights without lenses. Is the one on the left oil or alternator? I may be trying to solve a non-problem while ignoring the actual one.
_________________
196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[Wildthings]

If you want to be able to see the gauge going down the road then get an electrical gauge and sender., plus enough wire to run to the dash. The Type 1 case has a 10 x 1mm thread that uses a gasket to seal, but a 1/8" pipe thread will likely work if you can't get a sender with the correct threads. As mentioned they do make adapters to go from a 1/8" thread to a 10 x 1mm thread, many autoparts will have such.

If you use a grease gun extension hose and mount your sender to the shroud or elsewhere, you will need to make sure the sender has a ground connection somehow.

It is not normal for oil pressure to drop off at higher engine speeds so do look for a wire that is randomly grounding out as BD suggests.

[Stray Catalyst]

It turns out that it’s the pulley - a crack in the cast adaptor between the pulley and the alternator. Anybody know where I can find one of these in Toledo? FLAPS isn’t able to find them.

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196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[danfromsyr]

I'm not familiar with the Toledo area

but you may be able to get the part shipped from Larry's Off road down in Dayton, OH

https://goo.gl/maps/k5bniY6M3R22

4156 Wadsworth Rd, Dayton, OH 45414
larrysoffroad.com (937) 275-9501
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[Randy in Maine]

Call Clark...he is "Awesome Powdercoating" down in Vanaloo but works in Toledo. I wish I had his phone number.

[email protected]

Another Option would be to get ahold of those guys at Leakoil.net They are all over Ohio.

[Stray Catalyst]

Dayton is a two and a half hour drive from here. I found the pulley at Parts Place for Volkswagens, in Warren, MI. They’ve shipped the part to the car parts store where I limped the bus, so I hope to be back on the road and headed west about 20 minutes after the mail arrives tomorrow.

Thank you all for the help and advice.
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196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[Wildthings]

I make no claims to be a Type 1 guy, but are we looking at some mismatched parts here?

[SGKent]

I am not sure what is meant by "cracked?" I see gouge marks. That looks like a generator pulley to me in which case if it is a generator I would be looking at worn out brushes first.

Here is a photo from classifieds of a generator pulley.

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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[Stray Catalyst]

It’s easier to see now that I’ve removed it from the alternator. The pulley may be incorrect - it was changed by a shop a couple of years ago, when the previous alternator failed while my gf was driving. To be honest, I’m not experienced enough to spot that mistake.
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196? Laser 917 Kit Car
1982 Vanagon Westy Diesel 1.6NA
1974 Sun Bug, lowered std Beetle
1969 Westy, mostly stock, the Road Trip bus.

[Wildthings]

I believe that both pulley halves should have center holes shaped to match the hub, whereas your inner pulley half is of another design with a round center hole. Like I said above though, I am not a Type 1 guy.

[TomWesty]

[SGKent]

thinking shims and belt? were wrong allowing the belt to slip and grab, eventually breaking the pulley by the outer part rocking. The shims are what locks the width, not the belt.
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“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[TomWesty]