voltage gauge is reading about 14 at idle and will jump up to almost to 18 when given gas. I've put a meter on it and it's running at about 12 when idling and jumps to 14 when raising the rpms. so i know this is not reading right.
oil pressure is reading zero when idling and only jumps to 15 when rpms are raised. I've pulled a valve cover and the pump is pushing oil through the push rods, but this still scares me.
tach not sure if this is off but it idles smooth around 1500 rpms, but it doesn't sound like it's racing. maybe a touch. if it drops below 1000 it stumbles and runs rough. plus one time i spun tires bad and didn't catch it till the tach whet past 7000 but it seemed like it could of went higher if i let it
the temp. gauge was off by 40 degrees (high) but i all ready replaced it with a pillar gauge.

all though i would like to replace all gauges with aftermarket but at this time it is out of the question ( money tight )

 

If all your gauges are acting funny (which seems to be the case), I would suspect that you have a bad ground. A ground with a high resistance could be causing an accuracy issue with your gauges. I'd take the cluster out, clean all of the contacts on the connectors, and try reinstalling. If that doesn't work, you may need to run a secondary ground to a clean spot on the chassis.

 

Well there Jim it's been a long time since i pulled a cluster. S it took me a little bit but i got her out. The two main connectors weren't to bad but i scraped of the best i could. The funny part about all this was only about half the lights were working ( a lot of corrosion ) so much i ended up flipping the wires on the blips around but ever thing works now. On a funny note i had a bulb fall down the defroster vent . but anyways thanks and the next time your in Rochester i owe you a garbage plate

 

How bout you mail me one? I'm dieing for a ham & egg plate...