How to tell if you have good oil pressure without a guage?

My guage will not work for nothing. I have changed the oil pressure sensor and still nothing… Anyways, the engine purrs like a kitten when engine temp is cool… When it gets warm however, it starts ticking/tapping and develops a miss. I wanted to check the oil pressure when it warmed up to see what it was running… However, I don't know how without a guage. Any ideas? Its a 2000 ford ranger 4wd with a 4.0L V6.

All you can do is to keep it full of oil & hope the pump is working…

Install a "mechanical" oil pressure gauge, the kind they sell in "hot rod" shops, like a Stewart Warner gauge, or equivalent. Check Summit Racing online. It will have a little plastic tube that goes between the engine and the gauge. If you don't have the energy to do this, or there's no room around your instrument panel to mount such a gauge, then troubleshoot your gauge problem.

Check whether your city library or nearby college library has an online subscription to Alldata. You can see the wiring diagram for your gauge, and find the problem.

Here's an example, but I'd get a 0-80 psi gauge. You might need a mounting bracket to hang it somewhere.

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/sww-82323

Here's a 0-80:
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/sww-82322

Heres a mounting panel for that size gauge, a different brand, but just an example. They have chrome ones too.
http://m.summitracing.com/parts/atm-2236

Next time you get a CEL look into freeze frame data. Some of the higher end code readers will show data.