Restoration Tech: 1964-66 Pontiac Oil Pressure Gauge Sender Units

By: Patrick Smith
Those of you who work with older Pontiacs from the mid sixties running gauges instead of idiot lamps probably are aware of a few unique items that make owning these cars interesting. The oil pressure sending unit for instance, is specific to the 1964- 1966 era. The sending unit was wired differently compared to 1967 and later units. GM presently only markets the 1atter style sending unit which is set to a different ohm resistance. Matthew Kind in Champlin, Minnesota, has gone about solving this problem by re engineering the sending units to emulate the factory specs so they will interact with the gauge correctly. Matthew explains in his own words, what he does below.

The four gauge sending units Matthew reconfigured for operation on 1966-64 Pontiacs with
oil pressure gauges.

"I rewound the rheostat on these new Delco senders to work only with the 64-66 P/8 cars. They use a 31 ohm system unique to those cars. Only the upper electro-mechanical portion was opened and modified. The lower portion, where the oil comes in, was not disturbed. Will NOT work with 65-66 T/8. T/8 cars used a common 93 ohm sender. It will work ok on a '63, but they used an 80 psi system, so it would probably read low."

"Each sender was bench tested using both mechanical gauges and an original '65-'66 O/P gauge. I recorded readings at 10psi intervals to determine accuracy, and I'll provide the data with each unit. Due to the manual winding, each unit is unique and the readings may vary depending on each car's factory gauge."

The 1964-66 P/8 cars required 0-60 psi at 0-31 ohms to operate the gauge.

Grp. 1.800, P/N 14036243 (D1829) replaces 1506191 ('64-'65), and 6460468 ('66).

Each sending unit was electrically tested after reconfiguring.

Naturally, Matthew owns one of the big car Pontiacs himself which is how he encountered this gauge- sender unit interaction problem. He's gone and made 8 units for applications and sold half the lot to date. He has 4 remaining units in inventory at press time and is offering them for sale to help fund the project car. If by chance you contact him and he has sold the last unit, he does plan to make some more in the Spring. You can contact Matthew on facebook on his timeline or pm him for details. A screenshot of his profile icon and location details ( which does not usually change) is included for positive ID. Good luck!