I've got an 81 242 manual w/ push-button OD.

My oil light is comming on very intermittently- mostly durring accelleration at the top end of each gear. The car has fresh oil & filter.

I did have a new alternator put on a while back and thats about when it started. I'm thinking they bumped the sensor and there is either a short or (more likely) the seal is ruptured causing a false reading. I am not leaking any oil (which is actually a little worrisome for an 81).

I take (relatively) good care of the car and figure if anything catastrophic went wrong, I'd know regardless of the oil light. Any slow leaks would give me warning before the oil light came on.

If I can deal with the annoyance of seeing my oil light come on, is there any major reason to get this fixed?

If Dave's suggestions of cleaning up the wires around the switch don't work, there are 3 possibilities:

1) The short is upstream in the harness. If this is the case, disconnect the connector from the switch and tape it to the end of the switch. This keeps the harness in the same approximate position as when it's connected. If the short is upstream in the harness, then the dash light will still come on in the same way when you hit the top end of each gear.

2) There really is an oil pressure problem. The definitive test for this from what I've heard is to connect a pressure guage in place of the switch. Minimum pressure at 2000 rpm should be 36 psi; maximum at any speed should be 87 psi(Bentley). Apparantly some test sets allow viewingfrom the passenger compartment while driving, in which case you could test at the top of each gear.

3) The oil switch is faulty. If Dave's suggestions or #1) don't point out the problem, you may just want to try replacing the switch instead of trying to arrange a pressure guage. I believe you can get one online for about $10. A 15/16" deep socket makes the job a breeze - 5 minutes. If this doesn't solve it though, and you're sure there is no harness short, you'll have to go back to the pressure test.

I just replaced my oil switch, and it fixed an intermittent flashing oil light problem. In my case the problem was more obviously the switch, as it would not be on at all, then stopping and restarting the engine would bring it on full. Then it started leaking.

The wire at the oil pressure sender is probably shorting to bare metal. Either it's hanging loose or more likely the insulation got crispy and has fallen off. The short is probably to the back of the alt during acceleration or whatever. The quickest solution is to use liquid electrical tape or even roll tape (knot the end so it doesn't unravel) to cover the bare wire.
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Dave -not to be confused with a real expert, just goofing around at this