Oil Pressure Sending Unit

[bobanderson3]

Does anyone know where I can purchase a replacement Oil Pressure Sending or Transmitting Unit for my 1980 Zagato Spider, it has a 2000cc motor. I believe the original part number could have been 4151997.
Many thanks
bobanderson3@bigpond.com

[SubGothius]

Any vendor of FIAT parts should have it, as that's a part shared in common (note the p/n starting with 4, whereas unique Lancia parts typically start with 8). Alas, I wouldn't know of a good source in Oz; maybe you know, or others could chime in there with a tip?

[KeppelmanJ]

I bought one recently from International Autoparts.

[davidb]

I got one from Vicks awhile back ...

[Jim Keller]

Yup. pretty much any Fiat or Lancia vendor will stock them, very common failure part.

[KeppelmanJ]

Yup. pretty much any Fiat or Lancia vendor will stock them, very common failure part.

And there's hardly one easier or more gratifying to replace, watching that needle climb back into normal range.

[Jim Keller]

Yup, nothing like a dead needle for stress on a trip! LOL!

Tech hint: Taking the time to pop off the alternator makes changing it much easier and faster too, even with the alternator removal time, really opens things up to access but most importantly, see what's going on

[KeppelmanJ]

[QUOTE=Jim Keller;23466]Yup, nothing like a dead needle for stress on a trip! LOL!

Indeed, tho I need to add a particular experience to this. Years ago my family and I were in Yellowstone camping from our 77 HPE - then the family locomotion of choice - and the oil pressure needle went to zero. Two long, driving days from home (Bellingham). The car was running hot too. I called back to a friend and Lancia mechanic in Seattle - Robin Bee - to ask advice. He said as long as the red light isn't on all is well, proceed So with four in the car, junk on the roof and the hatch full, the heater running full tilt to keep the engine cool, we drove and camped our way home. Once home I pulled the pan and the pump and found, as Robin had predicted, a bit of crud under the relief valve. With that out, the needle swung back up to normal and we drove on for years. No damage done. A credit to the engine design!

[len_newstrum]

I did something similar in 1958. The oil pump in my Taunus 12M failed and I had to get back to school for final exams. I floated the crankshaft by way overfilling the crankcase so that the rods were dipping into the oil and drove from Sacramento to Berkeley (110 miles), then back after finals were over, keeping below the speed limit. No problem. Chevrolets, up until about 1950, if I remember correctly, had no oil supplied to the rod bearings. They had little sheet metal pieces on the con-rod big ends called "oil slingers" that dipped into the sump and threw oil all over the place, including up into the cylinder bores. Journal bearings are quite happy if there is oil close that they can suck in, although full-pressure oil systems are more reliable.