If it was not for bad luck I would have none at all!

sorry it took so long to post a reply guys....I have been busy busy busy messing with the jeep trying to get some stuff done on it.

first let me clarify.....I don't know why I said it but I didnt mean to say quaker state, I meant mobile.

second.....the first thing that came to my mind was to also hook up a mechanical gauge/pressure tester......problem is.....in our financial struggle.....that was one of the things I sold to a member here on fabo :banghead:

third thing is.....as mentioned above....I was mistaken on the "gray sludge" there was a little bit of gunk build up on the bottom of the cap and on top of that was condensation from the cold temp outside.........when it warmed up outside it all evaporated.

I didnt get a chance to read anyones posts before i dove in head first on my hunch.....but let me say that a few of you were spot on!!!

I "kind of lucked out" I say that because I am pretty sure the problem is now fixed! and I didnt have to spend all the time and money I was fearing the worst of....... but I did have to spend every last dime we had to our name at the moment to get what I needed to take care of the problem.

I did a little research on the net and alot of people said they had the reverse symptoms of what my jeep was having (they said oil pressure would go away when on the gas and come back at an idle) and I read that 90% of the Jeep grand cherokee's from 1999-2002 would have an oil pressure switch failure.....and it was an EXTREMELY common thing ...but the dealers wouldnt put a recall out on it because most would last more than 35,000 miles before failure took place.

I was either thinking I was looking at a collapsing filter or an oil pressure switch......so i decided to take the chance and let it sit at an idle until the gauge hit 0 psi and just let it run and listen to it......I let it run with "no oil pressure" for a good 3 minutes straight and I didnt hear one tick or knock or clatter or chatter or banging or tanging or nothing......so I figured it was not a matter of a bad oil filter or clogged pick up or pump failure...ect...ect... and that it had to be the oil pressure switch.

so I took a trip into town,got another mopar oil filter and some oil....just for the heck of it......and got the oil pressure switch (you don't even want to know the stupid price of that small chunk of brass and plastic that probably only cost the manufacturer $0.13 to build!!!!!)......anyways,drove back....jacked the jeep up.....pulled the oil filter (its right in the way of the oil pressure switch) hack sawed the filter in half to have a look inside and everything looked normal and clean,no metal or gunk or chunks of filter or anything like that.........then when I pulled the connecter harness off of the oil pressure switch I had a good amount of oil pour out of the plug!!!!!! it appears that the internals of the oil pressure switched had ruptured somehow and had been filling up the harness with oil which was most likely causing some sporadic shorting.

then I had to go track down a socket that would remove the switch because its an oddball size.....finally got back (at which time it is dark outside) ......I removed the original switch......then unhooked the coil and cranked the engine over a few times until oil spurted out of the oil pressure switch hole in the block ( wanted to make sure there wasnt a chunk of dirt in the oil galley or something causing any blockage....seeming how I was right there anyhow and it only took a second to do.).........then I used electrical cleaner on the harness and blew it out with air to get rid of all the oil and then smeared in some dielectric grease. installed the new oil pressure switch,plugged the harness back in....put the new filter and oil in.....fired her up with no problems.

then took it on a few mile drive and got it up to temp, floored it a couple times,turned on all electrical components to put a draw on the electrical system just for the heck of it to rule out any possible causes.....came to stop signs and let it idle,let it idle in park....ect....ect.....

and the result is.....at a stop sign in drive at an idle my oil pressure does not drop below a steady 39-40 psi,driving down the road I run at a steady 50-51 psi, at an idle in park it sits at about a steady 41 psi......which if I remember correctly is where about everything ran prior to this "hiccup"....

so as of right now it looks like I got it all fixed!!!!.....I am still going to keep my eye on it just to be safe ( I am always watching my gauges anyways ).....but after going through some trial and error,thinking things over,seeing the symptoms.....and the lack of any engine noises at "0 psi" and seeing the oil inside the connector where NO oil should be present....all paints a pretty self explanatory picture.

sorry for such a lnog post...but I just wanted to explain it all in as much detail as I could INCASE someone else runs across a similar problem......and even though it sucks that now I am broke.......it sure beats the heck out of possibly rebuilding an engine and being without our vehicle!

Thank you again guys for chiming in with ideas and trying to point me in the right direction.....earlier in the day I was just so dang PO'ed I didnt even want to rationally think about all the possible things it could be....so I waited to cool down for a bit and then started getting my hands dirty and figured out what was up.

Thank you again FABO you guys are awesome!.