I recently changed my previous rotted stock heated choke to a non heated unit (all I could find for now). Now my oil light does not appear at start up. I understand that the oil switch is responsible for powering up the choke heater during start up, but can't figure if a choke heater must be connected in order to complete the circuit for the oil light to function. If there was a low pressure situation, would the light still function? Would I need an alternate ground?

Before startup, there /is/ a low pressure situation; that's why the oil light comes on. If it's not coming on you need to trace down the wiring and see why not. I'm not sure about the specifics of the system, but it shouldn't be hard to fix once you get a hold of a wiring diagram or trace it out yourself.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

In my 74 pickup, my electric choke wire got grounded out and killed my whole ignition. So i imagine if the light werent coming on due to a short assuming the oil pressure unit and choke are wired together, your ignition would be faulty too. But i havent had my electric choke hooked for years and my oil light has always worked.Plus i think your oil pressure unit works by completing a ground, your choke works by grounding out a hot lead expanding the coil and activating your choke, so i dont believe your choke and oil unit are tied in with eachother.

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Drive it like its stolen, and be glad im not YOUR son...

Thanks for the help guys. I had checked the wiring diagrams beforehand and made sense that the choke heater shouldn't be a factor but thought it funny that the oil light didn't work soon after disconnecting the choke. Fuzzy logic on my part I guess... after checking everything over, and not wanting to believe the oil sender was at fault, coincidently at the same time, I happened to put some marvel mystery oil in the crankcase and lo and behold, the oil light now shows at key start. The oil sender must have had been stuck open with crud. Good grief