My fuel gauge has been bouncing around while driving. It's not the typical up and down when accelerating/slowing. While cruising at constant speed, the gauge will dance from 1/4 to 3/4 to 1/2, etc. Based on history of other owners, is this a gauge problem, sending unit issue or something else? Thanks for any feedback.

 

The needle will "PEG" of the ground is lost or the pink wire is not connected.

Gauges usually fail,..... all or nothing. They will either show an accurate reading or they do not.

My guess is the printed circuit on the cluster. As time goes by I find that more and more of these things are failing then ever before. Chalk it up to age of the parts ( that were never meant to last forever )

a intermittent connection due to a busted circuit on a clusters printed circuit will act just as you described; very low reading, then a break in the circuit and sky high reading,..... then a good connection and accurate reading, only to show 'sky-high' after the next bump.

The printed circuit from any 'Regular" Camaro from 85-89 can be used as a replacment in your 87 cluster. ( do not use an 82-84 printed circuit. )

 

^^^Agreed. When mine went it out it just stopped moving. Ocassionaly it would twitch from time to time, mostly because the broken connection on the sending unit would make a temporary connection. I got really good at calculating fuel mileage. When I had to put in a new fuel pump I fixed it then by soldering the tab back on. Works fine now and its been about a year and a half.

Does it move around with the enigine off? Going around corners? Or is it at anytime?

 

Wanted to revive this to report the repair. I found a NOS fuel gage in a California dealership. I just installed and went for a drive. No more dancing around. The gage appears pretty stable when cruising now.