Hi,
I recently bought a 67 coupe Sports Sprint with A code engine and manual transmission. The car seems pretty original, including engine and transmission - at least everything ties into the Marti report.
I would like to keep the car running for about 6 months until I get the facilities to do a striped down restoration - currently I am living in an apartment with no garage.
I have been fixing small problems, but have now run into a potential big problem - oil pressure gone.
I was driving around the block to check out the engine because the it had started to run really rough after installing a PCV valve and breather (they were was missing), and changing HT leads to a new Autolite set. I had uninstalled the breather (re-plugging the manifold) suspecting this might be the cause, but the engine was running even worse (could be the new leads I guess - they seem too long).
I stopped the car to put in a little more gas - the sender in the gas tank is suspect. When I restarted the car the fuel gauge twitched and the oil pressure dropped to zero and has stayed there. I drove the 1/2 mile home, with the engine running as before.
The engine has been making a tapping sound when warm since I got it - but it appeared to be coming from the bottom of the engine rather than the top - that is, I do not think it is in the valve train. I discovered a loose spark plug and thought that this might have been the cause, but no. Could it be the oil pump?
The previous owner said that the sender unit on the gas tank is defective, since the guage reads empty until it nearly is, and then it climbs before returning to empty when the tank is. I can't confirm this because he delivered the car with gas and the guage has read about 1/2 all the time.
I had replaced the instrument voltage regulator (although I think the old one was fine), and got the temperature gauge working (the previous owner had thoughtfully installed a new sender with ptfe tape), although it only just gets off the cold mark when warm. I don't trust this, since down here in Arizona I can't believe the engine runs cold, and it sure seems really hot under the hood. The sender resistance goes down to 15ohms.
How can I check if the loss of oil pressure is a sender problem or something more serious? I have tools, but no facilities, and I don't want to risk driving the car to somewhere to get it checked out.
Other problems: the carb is incorrect, a 1.08 Autolite 4100, with missing stove pipe and fast idle cam - the choke housing is there. The number indicates it is from 1974.
Thanks, Clive.