OIL light comes on at idle and on deceleration

[Guest]

I have a 1982 suzuki katana and the oil light comes on at idle and also while I'm drving it; I also hvae a vdo gauge instaled on the motor and the pressure never gets higher than 2lb, usualy it is around 1lb. Can anyone tell me what I can do to resolve this problem, I just rebuilt the cyliders and the bike runs very good but the low pressure is very scarry, not sure what I could check for, I was going to start with the oil pump.

[Shin-Ken 1074]

Hi, I have an 82 1100S Kat and had this problem once. Have you had the sump off prior to this issue with the low pressure oil light coming on? If you have let me know because I can tell you what the problem might be, well why my oil light was coming on at idle and low speed. Rest easy, if it's the same problem I had it won't be the oil pump and the fix will cost about $7.oo, cheers.

[Nessism]

Do you have an oil cooler installed and if so, does it tap into the oil pressure cavity?

[rapidray]

If the oil pan has been off & you are missing the oring that goes between the pan & lower case half it will cause the exact symptoms you are describing. It can also wreck the cams & rocker arms due to lack of oil getting to them with the pressure that low. Ray.

[00.]

I will check the oil under the oil pan today and see if anything funny is going on, it might be a cloged oil pump screen too not sure.

[Shin-Ken 1074]

Its not the screen, if it was the light would be constant. If you have had the sump plate removed the problem will be the O-Ring has been left out or moved from the correct position while installing the sump plate. Putting a smear of engine oil on the O-Ring post will hold the O-Ring in place while the sump is installed. Replace the O-Ring with a new genuine item as the old O-Ring may be compressed and this allows the O-Ring to move from the post causing the light to come on at idle, braking and low speed.

[Smokinapankake]

Where you located? I'd be looking at that o-ring before anything else...

[00.]

just droped the oil pan and found a lot of crap stuck on the screen on the oil pick up. There was a lot of hair stuck in there not sure where the hair came from but drained all the oil and cleanned the pump and sump pan and now I don't have any oil pressure problems. YEESSSS

[OldVet66]

That was the mouse that crawled in when you weren't looking.