Ford: Ford oil/overheat fluke?, oil pressure sender, instrument clusters

Question
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this. Yesterday on my drive to work I looked down and my 97 4x4 f150 peggeed out on the overheating gauge and the oil light came on. I stopped and put oil in it and started, heat and oil light went back to normal. I drove to work, changed the oil and filter after work and on the drive home it Pegged and the light came on again. I Immediatly pulled over turned it off then restarted the engine within about 3 seconds. The oil light went off and the temp gauge went right back to normal. I drove home and to work this morn and it pegged again and the oil light came back on. I couldnt pull over but within 10 seconds or so the heat dropped back to where it normally sits and the oil light went off. What could this be? A bad sensor and if so what sensors should I check/replace? Maybe a bad ground? Or something serious? Im in the dark and have no idea. Please let me know what it could be. THANK YOU very VERY MUCH! Cy

Answer
Hi,  I'm very sorry for taking so long but I was on holiday and requests were supposed to be forwrded to another tech.

This not a common problem.

Try banging on the dash next time and see if it corrects.  Could be a failing instrument cluster, or bad connection.

It is possible that it is a wiring issue as well. Check the wires from the temperature sender to the firewall and see if any damage visible.

The oil pressure sender does not use a ground, so that eliminates a grounding issue

Instrument clusters can be rebuilt or you can go used, but personally, i would instal an aftermarket trio guage (amps, oil,temp). They are much more dependable.