96' 3.2L No Oil Pressure Indication

Have a 96' Rodeo 3.2L 254,000 miles. Yesterday the oil light came on and pressure indicator dropped below zero, engine was very noisy before turning off. This morning I cranked up and pressure was up for about two minutes, engine sounded normal, then drop and light again. I shut down.

Read somewhere online that if you turn key to on(without starting engine) and gauge should react, if it stay's below 0, then the sensor is bad... any truth to that?

anyway, I dropped the oil pan today(that was an adventure) no real sludge in oil pan, but quite a bit of metal particals litter the oil pan, the oil pickup tube screen doesn't look very flow friendly either. But, I don't know what step to remove the pick up tube as one bolt is obscured by whatever the thing is right below it. Anyone with experience removing that tube please tell me where I go from this point, why I should stop at this point or what hope do I have in gettin this ride back on the road.

I know I've gotten a lot of miles outta this baby, but everything else is still working so good, the a/c blows ice cold... I hate to let go...

any and all advice appreciated...

Paul

On mine, turning the key sets the oil pressure gauge to about 40.

I'd check the oil pump and relief valve if the pickup tube cleaning does not work.

The manual says:

Check to see that the relief valve slides freely. (It is located on the underside of the oil pump, there is a cap with 2 bolts securing it).
The oil pump must be replaced if the relief valve does not slide freely.
Replace the spring and / or the oil pump assembly if the spring is damaged or badly worn.

The oil pump is located on the front of the engine, surrounding the crankshaft, behind the timing cover.

I don't know about removing the pickup tube, I've never done it before. It looks like it attaches with 4 bolts. The manual does say to remove the oil pipe and o-ring before removing the pickup tube. Is that the part in the way? The oil pipe may have 2 bolts in the front of it behind the timing cover. It is hard to tell in the drawing. There is an o-ring where the pickup tube mounts to the block, maybe it has disintegrated. I'd replace the o-rings while you have it apart, cheap insurance.

Good Luck,
Dale

So SWEET to here that puppy's still crankin! It's good to hear that these engines can and will run forever.

I have no input for you, but I too have the 3.2L, and love it to death.

Can I ask what your service ritual has been? I'm curious to know.

my wife always had the oil & filter changed every 3k to 4k miles. the only thing different that she did was to put a pint of marvel mystery oil in with the oil and a pint in the gas tank once a month. I was beginning to think nothing was ever going to happen that it would run forever. the engine probably has more than the 254k miles, reason I think the odometer was run back cuz when we got the vehicle used 26k miles on it the first thing that broke was the odometer cable at the transmission. so who knows how many miles it really has on it.. I know we put over 220k on it. the only other problem we had was the timing belt tensioner gave way at about 175k. Quick fix and she was off and running again. This rodeo has been a great vehicle, much better than I ever anticipated.

10-4, I hear ya! These are fantastic motors. Hopefully she'll be back on the road very soon. Keep us posted!

Cool! Another 100K or so to go on my 3.2, then!