I've been reading & searching since I bought my 99 last week; and my oil gauge sits at 0 for a few minutes after starting (it has been below freezing since day 2 of owning the truck)

Apparently there is a mod where you can put a oil pressure sender on instead of a switch; but I can't find a part # that I can pickup at Oreilley or Autozone.

Also it looks like no resistor to jumper on the 99 either; simply swap the sender and voila a real gauge, is this all correct?

This is the best writeup I could find: "Dummy" Gauge

Thanks for any help

 

In order to do this mod on a 97~03 Ranger, you would need to substitute the oil pressure/voltmeter gauge segment from a 95~96 Ranger.

The later OP gauges like yours and mine are wound differently to read midscale at 12V using a simple on/off pressure switch. With the sending unit stepping down the voltage across the gauge, the reading would be so low on the scale that it would be just about useless. That's why you'd need to substitute the earlier gauge segment that was designed to work correctly with a sending unit.

BTW, if you opt to swap in the entire 95~96 cluster assembly, that may cause other issues with indicator lights and the tach and also change the odometer. Better, IMO, to swap the 95~96 OP/voltmeter gauge segment (or just the OP gauge itself) into your 99 cluster.

The sending unit for this mod is a Standard Motor Products PS60 or equivalent.This is the same type used as the factory sending unit used in most 80's compact Rangers, so it could also be looked up that way. 1985 should be a good generic Ranger year to search.

I have a 95 gauge in my 2003 with a sending unit swap and it works well. Below is a picture of the OP/voltmeter gauge segment. In my case, since my truck's cluster is silver and all 95's are black, I swapped just the 95 gauge guts and reused my original silver face and orange needle.

 

Thanks!