Walter V-Drive Low Oil Pressure warning light or sensor issue

[dfoster]

I have a 2004 SV211 with the ZR6. It runs the Walter (not Wurth ?) V-Drive.
Last fall it was running fine, I winterized it, changed all the oil (engine, trans, vdrive), etc.

I got it running on the hose, and then dropped it in today. After engine warmed up, I picked it up to 35 or so, everything felt great, looked down and the vDrive oil pressure light was still on. Slowed down/stop/pick up speed again, light stays constantly on (not even a flicker).

Checked the oil and it was on the low side (clean, but close to the L) added a bit more oil to get it up to the H side. Tried again, but same result.

So idled to my dock. I'm not sure how to check the sensor. The wires look corroded, and I can't even get the screws out without it starting to strip.

Based on another post from here, I pulled the sensor out and had my wife put her finger on the sensor hole, while I drove it a bit. I was only able to get to about 1500RPM as I am in a no-wake zone, but she said she felt no difference when I put in gear or throttled up, other than the sound. Her finger was still bone dry.

Is there a better way to test this? Should I just get a new sensor and try that? I'm worried that this points to a bad oil pump, which I have no idea if that is something I can attempt, or if I am looking at a couple grand back at a dealer.

Any ideas how to bench test the sensor? Or something else I should try?
If it is the pump, is this anything I can do, or does it take pulling the engine out?

It is such a nice day out here... really was wishing to social distance in the middle of the lake.

Doug

[dfoster]

Walter V-Drive... not sure how I did Wurth... but hey, rushing around.

I managed to pull out the sensor. Hooked it up to the volt meter and my air compressor at 20 psi. Shows closed with no pressure and open with 20 psi. Compressor isn't accurate below that so not sure if that is too high, but I guess that means sensor is good. Or does anybody know the specs? I heard it opens between 2 and 4 psi. And the manual says normal pressure is 6 to 12 psi, so not really conclusive.

One thing I noticed when reading the manual is that I don't pull the oil strainer out when doing oil changes. The oil looks super clean, as I am only doing about 30 hour per season right now, but not sure if something could get clogged in the strainer so that I can't build up pressure.

I also tested the connection to the warning light. I'm able to get the light to turn on/off properly, so I know that the wiring is good. Or is at least good now.

Any suggested next steps? Thinking I may need to drain the oil clean the strainer, etc. But is there any way to test out the mechanical pump? I don't think I have a gauge that reads 2 - 12 psi to test. Just more car pressure gauge, etc.

[jkallen21]

First of all, kudos for finding a wife willing to do that! Second, I bought an oil compression test kit from harbor freight that worked fine for testing my ZR6 pressure which turned out to be fine. I also called PCM because I would always get an oil pressure warning on deceleration - they suggested a heavy weight oil (20W-50 I think). That helped a lot. I also had to replace the oil sender 3 times before the intermittent warnings finally went away. Not sure what was wrong with the other two, but the 3rd time I did it myself using the part from NautiqueParts.com

[Sjbond67]

hi dfoster did you resolve your issue? i was going to create a post bc i have a similar issue however i replaced the sender with a new honeywell 2psi switch. The boat has had 75+ hours on it with the light on and never had an issue. I took the sender off and drove the boat around 1400 rpms and about a quater size drop of oil came out. I assume its working.. Also I spoke to a guy that works on these and he told me there is a set screw and you can adjust the pressure on these, so I wonder if pressure is not set right especially if jkallen said he replaced his 3 times

[shag]

I think that is only a 2 psi switch. I restored a 92 excel and had to replace the sensor/switch as it was bad.