The other day for the 1st time, the needle in the factory oil pressure gauge was jumping around all over the place. That drive was about 5 miles and didnt stab the throttle at all when it was doing this. Its never done that before and after letting the car sit for a few hours it went back to being 'nornal'.
Did my oil pressure sending unit have a 'hiccup'? I tracked the car last weekend and just prior to that I did an oil change, but all week long until then and during the event the oil press was fine & stable.

93 T/A with 172K on the clock.

Is there a way to test the sending until w/ it off the car?

thanks in advance

 

Well if it behaves anything like mine does, which is LITERALLY jumping around and not a smooth transition from one spot to another, it's most likely a wiring issue of some sorts. Either in the gauge, the harness/plug or the sensor itself.

 

The needle was all over the place just like yours. I removed the sensor and found a tiny amount of oil in the connector so I used electrical contact cleaner on both ends of the connector. For the most part the needle is back to normal with just a bit of twitchyness here & there... BUT, the slight jumpiness is still there. I picked up a new oil pressure sending unit and am putting it in tomorrow.
Im not sure if the seals failed in the sensor and oil is working its way within to the connector portion, but I'm not taking any chances.

 

Yea, that's the sign of a toasted OP sensor. Mine doesn't have oil there though, so I don't know if it's the sensor or what heh I tried putting in one from a TBI truck only to find out that it's totally different -_- Damn 93s and that long arsed 'nose' on the sensor. Oh, and it's a 1 wire vs TBI's 3 wire :\ And yes I'm too poor to get one right now heh It doesn't do it all the time and it gives me enough of an idea of my OP anyways. If the blasted thing had a ground, I'd blame that!