Oil light coming on and car cutting out

[mm1000]

My Spider is close to being back on the road but I seem to have suffered a setback.

The light on the oil gauge has never come on until today When the engine temperature reached 90c the oil light cam eon and the engine sputtered and cut out. It would't restart thought the oil light was still on. After letting it cool down, it started up again and all was fien until it got up to 90c when the same thing happened again - oil light, cutting out.

My concern is it's terminal and an engine rebuild is on the cards.......

[So Cal Mark]

did the warning light come on before the engine stalled?

[mm1000]

Yes - it has never come on before, not even with the ignition like in most other cars.

[GeorgeT]

I think that "90c" may be the key: what happens when you reach that temp - maybe the cooling fan relay trips and turns the fan on. There may be a "cross connection" in the wiring that grounds out the ignition. The light should come on when the ignition switch is on but the car not running.

[carl]

If this spider has the factory electric fuel pump, the pump will cut out if the oil light comes on. i would replace the oil light sending unit.

[Nanonevol]

Didn't the '75 have a mechanical fuel pump?

[divace73]

was the oil checked at all?

[GeorgeT]

Didn't the '75 have a mechanical fuel pump?

If it is a '75 it has a dual point distributor; it's possible that the points switch over at that point and there is a problem with the advanced set.

[So Cal Mark]

75-76 had an electric pump

[Nanonevol]

I made the ass-umption that all the carb cars had mechanical and FI had electric.

[mm1000]

After all of your suggestions, it turned out to be a failing electric fuel pump. The pump was quite new but for some reason was only getting about 11volts. I trace did back to a dodgy contact. I think when the engine was under any land the meagre output form the petrol pump couldn't cope with the fuel needed.