Park Fritz.
Test his oil pressure with a mechanical oil gauge about six inches from
the port.
You could have an electrical problem.
If it reads as low as you say then definitely park Fritz before you spin
a main or rod bearing and have to decide whether you convert to a Suburu
or I 4.

On Fri, 13 Jul 2001 19:15:27 -0400 Stephen Steele
<steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET> writes:
> Karl, et al:
>
> My '84 Westy (Fritz) has been exhibiting the dreaded oil pressure
> blues. I
> bought it with the understanding that it had OP problems...the trip
> last
> fall from AZ to Southern OH was uneventful and I have logged a
> couple of K
> miles on it since. Recently. however, the OP light has been coming
> on and
> the gauge is showing lower than before.
>
> Before I tried anything, I decided to get a baseline for OP
> performance.
>
> Yesterday, I took a 45 minute each way trip to our regional (used to
> be
> "our" local) Boy Scout camp to visit with my sons.
> The route has a ten minute run at 65mph, ten minutes at 55mph and
> then 10
> minutes of back country, hilly roads at 30 mph, finished up by 15
> minutes of
> crawling up and down a dirt lane with major hills at 10-30
> mph...depending
> upon oncoming traffic and whether you get behind a "city slicker"
> unaccustomed to the road.
>
> Anyway, the van pulled away at 25-30 #, admittedly low, but normal
> for
> Fritz. Quickly, as it warmed up the OP dropped to 19-20# and stayed
> there
> for the first two legs of the trip; dropping to 4-5 and red light
> showing
> proud at any idle or stop.  The country road and dirt road showed a
> OP of
> 15# and steady until the end of the dirt road, at which the OP
> dropped to
> about 8-10 #.  YUK!
>
> After a short meeting (35 minutes), I reversed the route and the van
> performed as before.  I must say here that the engine sounds
> wonderful and
> runs very well....if it weren't for that idiot light and the OP
> gauge
> installed by the PO, I could be driving in IGNORANT BLISS! Waiting
> for the
> other shoe to drop.
>
> After returning from the trip, I pulled the OP sender unit from
> between the
> left side cylinder tubes and put in a calibrated OP gauge from a
> friend's
> garage and compared it to my onboard gauge...The onboard reads 2-3 #
> low and
> also sends the info to the idiot light! Some relief, but I still
> don't like
> the running pressures, even with 2-3 # added.
>
> A listee last week in a pmail suggested that I could possibly gain a
> little
> # by either stretching the spring a little or adding a spacer of
> some kind
> to the inside of the oil pressure relief valve. So I tackled that.
> The
> spring was 63 mm and I stretched it to 68mm. Unfortunately the
> stretching
> caused the spring to lean to one side and it caused the 'stopper' to
> bind a
> little when placed back in the housing. A ZERO OP resulted. After
> about four
> attempts to straighten the spring the OP came back up and read about
> 2-3 #
> higher.  As an extra measure I added a can of STP to the oil.
>
> Last night I had to repeat the above trip  for a very special
> overnight at
> the camp. For the first two legs OP read: 21-25#. The idle and
> stopped OP
> was at 5-6 # and the last leg was stayed at 19-23 #....horray!  The
> return
> trip this morning was about the same.  BTW on the way back into
> town, I saw
> something I have never seen before ... a dead beaver (very large
> male) on
> the side of the road, obviously a road kill.  I stopped and went
> back to
> check it out. I have watched a fairly large beaver population (at
> the camp
> about six seven miles away from the kill) off and on for thirty
> years; but I
> have never seen a beaver road kill before. I am sure some of our
> neighbors
> to the North will have some comments on this.
>
> ANYWAY, adding the two factors of low readings and 2-3 more pounds
> OP from
> the spring stretch ( and the STP ?); I am ready to take on the eight
> hour
> round trip tomorrow for the Central Ohio Westies, vans, and busses
> Campout
> in Beaver Creek State Park!
>
> With fingers crossed...
> --
> Stephen Steele*
> Chillicothe OH
> '91 Caravelle  "Hans"
> '84 Westfalia  "Fritz"
> '81 Diesel Rabbit "Ol' Yeller" by PO
> '90 Jetta GL  16 yo Sons' "together" car
> '74 MGB  "Terrance" My first car...yep, I've kept it since '74
> '93 Chevy S-10    I hate it ... but sometimes I need a truck
> *all rights reserved/no portion of this document may be reproduced
> w/o prior
> written permission

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