Does anyone know if it's an actual gauge or if it's a "gauge" that's actually an idiot light?
Looked at a beater f150 that seemed mechanically good, except the oil pressure gauge is at about 25 percent. My 91 ranger is always at half and I'm pretty sure it's a "gauge"
They are gauges, but Ford used a idiot light type sending unit, and put an inline resistor so the gauge would read at 1/2 while running. There may be some added resistance in the F150 or the gauge itself is off.
You can change it to be a working gauge, need a gauge sending unit and then remove the inline resistor. I believe the resistor is on the back of the instrument cluster and most solder a wire in its place. Info should be out on the web somewhere.
Tap the cluster. We have a truck that reads about 25% until you tap it and then it goes up to ~60%.
If they are gauges I wonder what 25 percent would be then....
If it's anything like the 80s-90s Thunderbirds and Cougars, they probably made a "running change" at some point and changed the sending unit to save a few bucks, turning it from a real gauge to an "on/off" idiot type gauge.
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