# Oil Pressure Driving Me Nuts



## Deerehunter (May 28, 2004)

I'm having oil pressure problems on my one Gravely 2 wheel tractor that is driving me to drink. What I did was this, since the this tractor had the old style oil filter you can't buy anymore, I robbed the head from another that has the replacable filter on it. This head also had the gauge on it. I hooked this all up then found I had to rob the relief valve body so the tube would reach. [The other one was too short] Got the tractor running and realized the oil pressure wasn't what it should be. As matter of fact, sometimes when I started it, there was no pressure at all. I figured that maybe the pickup tube inside was the problem. Drained the oil, took off both axles, [Did I mention that those gear reduction wheels are heavy suckers?], cleaned the pickup tube screen, cleaned all the slim from the bottom, made sure the tube was clear, put it back together and fired it up. Well, the pressure was a little better, but the needle only went to the high part of the low pressure area, right between low and normal. I decided I would take it out and run it a little to see what happens. After running it for a while under a load using the sickle bar mower, the engine got hot and the pressure went down to almost nothing. This was last weekend. Discouraged, I put it aside and went to work on John Deere LA. 
Today, I took off the lines and made sure everything was clear by blowing air through them. All was well with the lines. I checked the gears on the oil pump and they seem fine, but still have low oil pressure. The engine has real good compression and doesn't smoke. I'm out of ideas and quite frustrated. Does any one have any ideas for me to try? Is it possible that it is an older engine and doesn't provide enough oil pressure for this setup? I would like to get this tractor running properly because it has the gear reduction wheels on it and I can use the rotary plow on it. One more thing I should mention in case it matters, the valve relief body has the spring and ball in it.


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Deerehunter _
> *I'm having oil pressure problems on my one Gravely 2 wheel tractor that is driving me to drink. What I did was this, since the this tractor had the old style oil filter you can't buy anymore, I robbed the head from another that has the replacable filter on it. This head also had the gauge on it. I hooked this all up then found I had to rob the relief valve body so the tube would reach. [The other one was too short] Got the tractor running and realized the oil pressure wasn't what it should be. *


There was a difference between the earlyer, and later oiling systems. The early sistem had a lot less PSI, and valloum thethe later ones. If you have the later guage it will show low. Also some of the real early ones did rely on a certin amout of splash lube for the motor. One way to tell is look at the bottom of the engine case, and see if there is a small drain plug. first make sure you drain this with an oil change, but also SOME people say to use a streight 30 weight oil in these tractors. [OK the oil issue. Not going there, just what some people have said ] 

So if you do have the later guage, and a early tractor, I would remove the oil cap wile running to see if you can see a stream of oil from the relief valve. If so, I would say your probably OK.


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## Deerehunter (May 28, 2004)

*Re: Re: Oil Pressure Driving Me Nuts*



> _Originally posted by Ingersoll444 _
> *One way to tell is look at the bottom of the engine case, and see if there is a small drain plug.*



There is no plug on the bottom of the engine itself. This particular tractor does have the plug for draining oil from the chasiss on the bottom instead of out the side. There is no stream coming out on this one. It's more like a spray and when I open the fill cap, I usually get a face full due to the back pressure that comes out. I know this doesn't seem right either. I also heard that it is best to use straight 30 weight in the older air cooled engines.


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## wheely_boy (Sep 16, 2003)

Is there any way of calibrating the sensor and gauge? This may be a case of "what you don't know, won't hurt you."


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## Deerehunter (May 28, 2004)

> _Originally posted by wheely_boy _
> *Is there any way of calibrating the sensor and gauge? This may be a case of "what you don't know, won't hurt you." *



None that I can see.


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