Intermittent Oil Pressure Warning

[Tom J]

Witzend is correct. You should have a horn with key on and no oil pressure. If you do not get the horn you probably are not going to hear the click click of the lift pump either. The original oil pressure switch has spade connectors that do vibrate loose. The switch is on the port side of the engine, almost under the starter, of coarse the side with limited access.
I installed a switch with ring terminals to eliminate this issue.
Let us know.
Jeff

I had the same issue. I crimped the connectors a bit to make them tighter on the terminals, and used zip ties to hold the harness tight to the pressure switch. I like the new switch with the ring terminals, though. Fairly common problem on this engine.

 

[Tom J]

Had a similar problem over quite some time: The Alarm seemed to just start ‘croaking’ intermittently at about 2000 rpm. Checked the connections to/from oil pressure switch, to fuel pump and exciter on the alternator, which provides initial ground (incidentally, the Catalina wiring diagram does not seem to show this connection correctly) with a multimeter. Eventually I replaced the pressure switch with one calibrated at 15-24psi and installed a very cheap 12V truck reverse alarm buzzer, which has two different alarm tones-same as the replaced buzzer.

The latter seems to have finally fixed the problem. The old buzzer was actually designed for 24V. Not sure, whether that contributed towards the problem.

I recently replaced the alarm buzzer with one from Catalina Direct. It was rated 12V, whereas the old one from the factory was rated 24V. The old one, before it died, worked erratically, and wasn't very loud. The new one is much more noticeable and consistent.