ok when I start it up oil pressure seems fine but after five minutes or so it drops to the very bottom of normal (on the line) it wil stay there for about ten more minutes then it drops to nothing the engine makes no noise if you pull over turn it off then back on it stays the same. continue on and about ten munutes later and its back up to the center of the guage and seems to stay there.
any ideas???????????

 

how many miles? I ask...because that should be said.

Is your crankcase filled to the proper level?

 

if your runnin an older ranger it may just be a bad gauge, the one in my ranger dont work at all.

 

^^profile says '86 ranger.

 

Well it's either a bad gauge which is pretty likely on old Fords or you have an oil pump or bearing issue which should get noisy. Or you're just low on oil.

 

yea, if you know for a fact that you have enough oil (check the stick) then you know its either a bad gauge or the pump is bad. get another gauge that you can hook up the the head, or to the oil gaugey thingy on the head (sitcks off the head on the drivers side) if you have it you'll see it. and either take it off (just screws out) and put the manual gauge in there, or get a t so that you can put the gauge on one side and the electric gauge for the instruments on the otherside. if the new gauge that you put on there works, then you know its either the pump, the gauge, or the sending unit. change out the sending unit and see what happens

 

thanks it was the gauge

 

Great that you found the fix.

I found that mine was actually the sending unit. Simple fixes.