Hello,

On the way back to the marina this evening the oil pressure alarm went off 
after having motored about 10 minutes (and previously an hour earlier motored 
20 minutes or so out).  I have a Westerbeke 20B2 diesel in my boat.  We have 
the admiral style control panel so that has both the temperature and oil 
pressure gauges as well as the alar buzzer.  Everything looked normal on the 
gauges with the oil pressure reading about 40 psi at 2500-2700 rpm (manual says 
35 - 60 is normal so maybe slightly on the low side but still in range).  The 
same buzzer is connected to the over temperature alarm as well but temperature 
also seemed fine and cooling water was flowing.  I shut down the engine and 
checked the oil level - which was just fine, right where it had been earlier in 
the day at the full mark.  Given that we were in the middle of the channel and 
everything seemed to check out I ended up deciding to start her again and 
motored the remaining 10 minutes or so back to the marina (with the buzzer 
going the whole time).  The oil pressure stayed at 40 psi until I slowed her to 
an idle at which point it dropped to 25-30 psi.  I think that is pretty 
typical.  According the the manual the buzzer should sound at below 10 psi as 
it does when you first start the engine.

My question is:  Do I assume that the sending switch for the oil pressure alarm 
is faulty and order a replacement?  Is there anything else I should check or 
verify to ensure that the oil pump is in fact working correctly and the oil is 
getting distributed through the engine?  Is there another part I should look 
into that could be causing this behavior?

Thanks!
Nathan Post
S/V Wisper 
1981 C&C34
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