Lazy oil pressure gauge?
 

I have an 87 Ranger and the oil pressure gauge is slow to respond changes in pressure. Is this the way the gauge is designed to work or do I have a bad sending unit?

Locate your oil pressure sending unit, depending on which engine you have. Is the sender a silver bulb looking thing about 1 1/2" diameter, or is it a smaller sender about 3/4" diameter?

Its a real gauge, has the bell shaped sending unit. It does fluctuate with rpm just responds very slowly. Never had a oil pressure gauge operate this way. I don't know if it is normal to operate this way or if I have a bad gauge/sending unit. Added a aftermarket gauge and oil pressure is fine. If I have a problem I would like to fix it and get rid of the aftermarket gauge, if not I'll leave it in.

Sender units aren't that expensive so, to satisfy yourself, replace the unit you have and see if that takes care of the problem.

a bit off topic but the connections for the temp indicator on my '94 were green/crudded. a cleaning repaired and now gives proper temp
was reading about 1/4 way up the dial when engine was stone cold