Accutach Oil pressure gauge install

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Ristin

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Intermittently my OEM gauge won't show a pressure indication on cold start. First time it happened I freaked out a bit but quickly discovered the issue was electrical and not mechanical.

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I didn't want an aftermarket gauge but I did want a fully functional oil pressure gauge. On my 1993 F-350 the oil pressure gauge mod was a simple as installing a 60psi sender and jumpering the resistor on the back of the gauge. No so with the Expy. I think I heard about Accutach from a post on Expedition Forum but maybe not. The Accutach option was cheaper than an Isspro EV oil pressure gauge. I love the Isspro EV gauges but not the price.


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At the last oil change I swapped out the failing pressure switch for the Accutach recommended Autometer oil pressure sender. (2242 for 100psi) That job didn't suck as bad as I thought it would but it wasn't fun either. I threaded the sender directly into the oil port. There's not much clearance between the sender and the diff case. I don't know how much the engine might rock side to side and I didn't give it any thought at the time. Just occurred to me as I was writing this.

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Ristin

Ristin

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Next was the electrical bit. It's been a while since I had the cluster out for the odometer repair so I had to watch a You Tube to remember how everything comes apart.
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The plastic housing has to come off and the circuit board separated from the cluster. After the ribbon cable is carefully removed the PCB just slides off the gauge pins.

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Ristin

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The female connectors for the oil pressure gauge get bent back to break the OEM connection to the gauge and the pin holes need to be enlarged. I used a Dremel bit. This process doesn't ruin anything and the gauge could be returned to stock if needed.


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i didn't get a picture of wiring the Accutach leads to the gauge pins. Once the gauge pin holes are enlarged enough for the Accutach connectors to slip though the pin holes without catching, the unit is ready for reassembly.
Slide the PCB back onto the cluster. Following the Accutach wiring diagram the connectors get pushed onto the gauge pins. Then route the wires through a hole in the cover.


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Ristin

Ristin

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Next is splicing into the harness. At this stage of installation the Accutach installation instructions become a bit vague. Took me a few minutes to figure out the wires I would need to spice into were all on the white connector. The instructions indicated power at start/run could be found on the RD/LG wire. took me a few more minutes to figure out that was Red with Lime Green stripe. So I spliced into the RD/LG for 12v power, black for ground, and the white with red stripe for the pressure. I double checked and then rechecked before cutting wires in the harness. That's a headache I don't need later. I cut the three wires I needed to splice into. I didn't have any reliable wire taps and Scotch-Locs are the electrical connector embodiment of Satan so I used high quality shrink wrap butt connectors. I've had excellent results with these connectors and the shrink part has glue inside adding to the holding strength of the connection. Since I used the factory pressure switch wire to connect the Autometer sender to the cluster all I had to do was connect the blue wire from the Accutach to the sender side of the white/red wire and the Accutach yellow wire to the cluster side of the white/red wire. The Accutach also drives the oil pressure light just like OEM.

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I didn't get a picture of where I mounted the Accutach controller. It's small and tucks in nicely behind the cluster. In the above picture you can see the 4 Accutach wires branching off to the left. Just out of the picture the Accutach controller is Gorilla taped to the black plastic just through the cut out in the brown plastic. The controller was wedged in and very secure even without the tape. I don't think it will ever come loose or rattle.
 
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Ristin

Ristin

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I read somewhere the 5.4L has high oil pressure. i installed a 100psi sender and wow, the gauge shoots right up on cold start. I have a short video but it's late and I don't know how to link or upload right now.

Here's a couple pics after the Expy was warmed up. First pic is hot idle, 2nd pic is revved up


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Ristin

Ristin

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Hopefully this is a working link to the first cold start after installing the Accutach oil pressure unit.

First start
 

Yupster Dog

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Intermittently my OEM gauge won't show a pressure indication on cold start. First time it happened I freaked out a bit but quickly discovered the issue was electrical and not mechanical.
You know most people come here get all pissy to find out that their oil guage is really a dummy light.

You on the other hand come with a solution for the problem. And a nice write up W/pic's to boot.
BRAVO!
 
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Ristin

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Thanks. I didn't plan to do a write up originally which is why I didn't get better pictures. Hopefully this will help someone else.
So far I'm very happy with results.
 
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Ristin

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These are pics after a drive to town and back with the engine fully up to operating temps.


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