oil & filter change was last summer and was working fine after it was done. Everything was good when put away in October. I usually run the engine every couple of months even if off the road, but this time is almost 4 months since the engine ran.
Thank you for the extra info, Jeremy.1990 was quite a transition year for the Factory! I know 5 of us of now. For more than a decade, I kept a 1990 Plus 8 I had restored in the UK. It apparently left they Works a few of weeks earlier than yours (R10326) so it had 3.5
which I swapped out for Lorne-tuned 4.6. To reduce well-intentioned confusion, all Morgan 3.5s and 3.9s unlike.LR who used them until the GEMS variant (with a transition front cover period). I even use them on my 4.6s. At some point in the early/mid 1990s, the company wisely switched to an electrical rather than mechanical oil pressure gauge signal.
Land Rover merely had a dash idiot light which usually meant the engine was toast before a driver could react to it. I like these pumps, as they are eminently repairable at home by amateurs who can also upgrade them. But the mechanical hose system is inherently dangerous [i]as my Help inbox indicates for the last 30 years [i].
BTW, the swap from mechanical to electric is discrete and easy, whether you have VDO or for those with Smiths gauge. I do that with all my Plus 8s. If we know which sender system you have, it will eliminate a lot of bandwidth. You can confirm by looking behind the dash at the oil pressure gauge. Is there little yellowish hose going into the rear of the oil pressure gauge? Checking your era's Plus 8 at the oil pump is unhelpful as the MMC kept using the one-shot oiler (shiver) for MANY years after they stopped using mechanical oil pressure gauges. Our Morgans are very simple, you just have to be contortionist. (wryly) This additional info will save much bandwidth.
Once we confirm the cause of the unacceptably low reading gauge, a fix should be simple.Luddite's question wisely points to the most common cause of your observations..namely a loss of pump prime (a notoriously common problem with them), There are methods used re-create the prime. And, BTW, there is a special sequence to use when changing oil on a LR/Rover Plus 8 with these pumps.
Lorne
