I recently purchased a 1992 Dodge club cab with with the 5.9L Cummings Diesel. The truck seems to be in great shape, with only 86,000 miles. The truck runs great and starts right up. The problem I am having is, the stock oil pressure guage read very high at normal driving speeds, when the engine is around 2,000 RPM's. It almost hits the H on the guage. But when it's idleing, it will go down a little, but not much. This is my first desiel, and am not sure if this is normal. If not, what could some of the problems be?

Also I noticed that after the truck has been running for a while, the temp guage also goes up pretty high, but will drop to about mid range, and then back high again. This goes on frequently, the indicater also bounces around especially when I turn the turn signal on.

Thanks for your help.

 

Check the main body ground out on the core support near the battery.

 

I"ve had a similar problem since mine was new. No oil pressure. the guage just barely moved up. Replaced numerous guages and sender (all under warrentee) and finially just put in a mechanical guage. Worked great until the line decided to fail and squirt hot oil on my leg.

 

Got a PM from the OP today, he said the ground wire was broken and repairing it fixed the gauges.

Not tootin' my own horn, just wanted anybody who found this thread doing a search to know that the trouble was just a bad ground.

 

thanks Dave, and thanks for the search engine on this site.

i have been plagued by gauge problems, what i thought were abs problems, the darn o/d unit kicking out without warning, the tape deck shutting down and resetting every time the abs light came on, the oil pressure gauge reading high, the temp gauge beginning to read high etc etc...

i toyed with the idea of getting a new radiator, checked on the price of a new voltage regulator (built into alternator... close to $300.00 with tax here)

was getting ready to give up on her

well, you gave me the tip to check the vacuum lines... that solved the o/d problem. then i did a search and found this thread.

sure enough, that ground wire had got fried when the hold down hardware for the dual battery setup the previous owner installed came loose and shorted out causing major havoc, spilled battery acid, and a small fire which i was lucky enough to be able to put out seeing as i was at a red light in the middle of heavy traffic at the time.

so anyways, i replaced that wire... end of ALL electrical problems!

as it was, i suffered with these problems for over a year before getting tired enough to look for the solution. i guess some things just take some time to work out.

i guess there's nothing stopping me from starting to piece together the goodies to swap that auto for a stick... come to think of it i have a 366 spring kicking around in one of my odds and ends bins...

thanks again Dave, and to all who take the time to share their experience and knowledge.

Bob