Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing No oil pressure - help required

Agreed.

Jeremy, I have scores of diagrams of the pump and pictures, should you want any.

L.

I thought better of that. Best to be over clear than less. Here are some more photos pf the pump from two additional different angles. Morgan trad mechanics is surprisingly simple (even the engines before 2000) but guessing is no fun before you try something new.

As we see. your oil pump has many unused plugs. Not sure why you chose the oil sender one to fill the pump. Must have been cumbersome. Were you trying to see if there was a blockage in the hose to the gauge?

L.

Jeremy, I remember a bloke that had a similar problem to yourself (he was changing the oil and left it to drain overnight, with resulting loss of pressure), to get the pressure back he filled the sump with oil till it came out of the dipstick hole, then cranked it on the starter motor for a minute or two, and normal service was resumed.ie full oil pressure. and remember to drain the sump back to the level before starting,

DB

Thanks B3MOG, that sounds like an easier solution :-)
For mine thought it lost prime just by being stored for 4-5 months?
Need to figure out why, as its never done this before?

Not back with the car now until end of May, will post update then when running, fingers crossed.

B3Mog, thanks for contributing a possible solution, much appreciated. and more so when it worked....

Using no more than logic, using the method you suggest, reduced the amount of "suck" required by the pump gears in order to get to prime it`s self given the rise in the level of oil in the sump....? Perhaps less expensive to use an oil can to pump some pressure back into the system, although that seems not to have worked in this case... Pity.

Pumping a bit of oil with the can into the galleries also seems likely to restore some lube to the areas that began to rattle a bit when last ran with no pressure, which seems somewhat comforting, prior to spinning things over again..?

No oil pressure whatsoever when the last time the engine ran was all good, points initially to a non functioning oil pressure gague, if not that then the next logical issue would seem to be the oil pump loosing prime, which from reports seems to be a rather well known issue, and more so following an oil change....!

For sure one can ramble on about a whole load off issues such as the oil pick-up being partially restricted combined with a loss of pump efficiency due to lay up, which together could create a similar outcome, but one step at a time, canceling out the simplest options first, may provide the leist complicated solution..... or NOT..?

Still keeping my fingers crossed.

UPDATE: Been working on the car this weekend, tried the approach suggested above by B3Mog, added 15L of oil which seemed a lot, span on the started for 4x30 seconds but nothing even flickered on the gauge. Now drained back out. Not sure I want to take off the oil pumps so will get it recovered to a garage for further work. Will let you know the outcome.

Jeez, sorry to read that you have not resolved this issue as yet. You have proved that electrically the gauge is connected and responds by deflecting when you disconnect the terminal on the pressure sending unit... Perhaps the sending unit is faulty... I suspect the sending unit has an electrical resistance within it`s casing, and that resistance alters relative to the oil pressure applied to it by the pump.
I have no idea of what that resistance might be, though if you understand the operation of a measuring volts or resistance in ohms, then there are tests you might be interested in making.

On the other hand you might consider it worth a punt to buy a replacement oil pressure sender unit.

If you do not mind getting messy... try removing the sender unit, check that the orifice in it is not blocked in any way...which seems unlikely, but I live in hope... with the sender unit removed and spinning the engine over with the ign coil disconnected to prevent the engine from firing up... Ideally oil should have been spat out of the opened gallery...?

fingers crossed for you yet again.

The car is garaged 300 miles away from our home, so only get to use it / work on it occasionally. The engine became very noisy when it ran initially, tappets, so I know that the oil pump has lost its prime. Plus oil level in the sump went up from half to full on the dipstick. Equally the gauge works, when i disconnect the single lead from the sender the needle goes full scale. At the limit of my capability / access as i have to work from under the car outside! So time to get someone with experience of the oil pump /priming to get it working!

Further update: nearest Morgan help was Leaderwood in Scunthorpe, however they are very busy and only have a part-time person who is experienced in older cars, so best they could do is fit me in towards the end of the year! So, back with the car this week, fortunately great weather, so have next 10 days to make progress. Today took off the oil filter to reveal that my previous attempts to fill the oil pump chamber with vaseline from the pressure relief value port were successful (as its visible in the top of the oil filter aperture) but this still failed to prime the pump. Now on to taking apart the oil pump to check wear and then repack with vaseline for next attempt. However the oil pump housing has some bolts that are a 12 point head design bit like a torx head (not cap head or six sided body head)I do not have a spanner or socket that will fit! I'll post a couple of pictures but would wish to know what socket or spanner to buy that will move these! Thank you!

Here are the pics
https://ibb.co/ZRFFG8Tg
https://ibb.co/vWjJ3yT