I'm Regina, new to the forum. Just purchased a 1987 chevy camaro sport coupe with a 305. I'm having a problem with some of my guages. The guages with needles are working but the lit guages are not working. The lit guages are oil pressure, water temp, and volt. I checked the fuses and the guage fuse was bad, I replaced it and now the test lights will come on when the key is turned but the guages still will not light to indicate pressure etc. Anyone have an idea what could be wrong? Also, the light dimmer switch works but the dash lights are very dim even fully engaged. The radio is also not working at all, no lights etc (unsure if it's related or a separate issue)

 

I don't know what you mean my "gauges with needles" versus "lit gauges"...

 

I'll try to figure out how to post a picture, but the speedometer is a needle, fuel is a needle, the rest are a light (I'm assuming a bar when it's working) instead of a physical needle

 

If your cluster looks like this:



You have the base instrument cluster. The 3 being smaller circles are warning lights.

The oil light and volt light should be on anytime the key is on and engine off because the engine does not have oil pressure when not running nor is it spinning the alternator to produce charge. When the engine is running, the oil and volt lights should be off.

If you had the full instrumentation, you would have two large gauges (speedometer on the left, tachometer on the right with an oil pressure within) and 3 smaller gauges (volt, temperature, fuel gauge).

 

Thank you! It is as pictured. I don't like that it's not one that will give an indication of where the temperature is etc. Do you know if it's possible to replace it with another model from another camaro that does give actual indications instead of just warnings?

 

Yes, it's possible and has been done. You will have to switch some wiring connections around however...