Ahh my oil lite came on...

[Bonneybear]

Bad day, My daughter called me, Dad the car broke down I'm 3 miles away, Ok here I come, Knowing the Saab had very little gas, I put a chain and tools in it anyway, jumped in only to find my wife took the keys with her..........ok, I'll take the bike.  knowing that I had a slight gas leak after filling her up last weekend{1st trip of season} I figured a piece of dirt. turns out the bail for the bowl was undone, got that fixed. Tried to start it......batt went dead.......ok, put charger on. little eather. got it going, grabbed some tools extra helmet, now it's later and colder. But Im off .... 1/2 way there my oil lite comes on,  I press on , coating as I can, I reach her, ck my oil ,little low add some anyway, start the car { broken alt belt} head home, 1/2 way home oil lite comes on....... sorry , just had to get that off my chest.
What should I check first?   Thanks Mike  

[steve hawkins]

Check you electrical connections - particularly with regard to the sender.  And hope for the best.

Is there any oil leaks?   Are you followed by a cloud of smoke?

If you are losing oil, you need to find where it is going.

If the oil light circuit is fine, then brace yourself.  

Sorry to hear about it.

How many miles on the motor?

[Bob_Roller]

First thing to do, is to check the indicator circuit, is the switch operating correctly, is there any chaffed areas on the wire to the switch.

There is power to the switch, anytime the key is in the run position, and the switch just provides a path to ground through the switch, when there isn't enough oil pressure to open the switch.

There is a filter bypass valve at the back end of the oil filter cavity, push on it to see if it moves.

I had a similar problem back in 1983, just changed the oil, ran it, leak checked normal, no issues with the oil pressure light.

Next morning, started it to go to work, and the oil pressure light wouldn't go out.

Had the dealer pick up the bike, and they said that all they did was apply shop air pressure into the filter cavity area, I'm assuming that pressure was applied to the tube in the center of the filter, but I'm not sure, and the problem went away, hasn't been back since.

Their best guess was that the pressure regulator relief valve hung open.

[ambrose78]

AS mentioned
1:Check that there is oil - you already have done this so..
2: Check the circuit. Connect the sensor wire to ground = light on. Take wire away light off. If this isn't happening then trace the wiring to solved.
3: Check the sender unit itself for operation. Similar to above method. except with sender unit
4: check oil filter installed properly with o-ring etc in proper position.
5. hopefully previous steps have sorted the problem

Given that it seems to happen halfway on the trip, it sounds as though it could be heat related. Could be the sensor itself is on its way out after all these years of service.

good luck with it  

[Bonneybear]

Hey, thanks guys, I haven't had a chance to check it out yet , but I'll keep you posted>