Today i had to briskly accellerate to 60 mph to get in front of a car, and when I got to 60-65 my tach was dropping at rhythmic intervals when i was not pushing the pedal to correspond. It varied maybe about 500 rpms, and when I totally let off the gas for a sec it went away. I put on the cruise after that and it didnt move erratically either. I think that it is something with our transmission and my dad thinks that it is a problem with our fuel system. I drive a 1997 SE with about 137k miles on it, mostly highway driving. The car still drives fine, but I want to possibly nip this problem in the bud and stop something more serious from going wrong.

Just so we're clear on this, do you have _any_ symptoms beyond a wonky tach needle?You've been saying that the needle is dropping but the car runs fine. How do you conclude that there is either a transmission or fuel problem here? I'm confused...

ok, i just wanted to make sure that this wouldnt blow up in my face, the trans thing was just a guess, I reall have no idea.

Might be an idea to see if the coil pack connections are clean and tight; I believe the tach input originates down there.

Har! Yeah, I'm sure you've forgotten; we had only eighty-six postings about it!

(For everyone else: It'* the fifth wire from the right, a white one sitting in between two darkish ones; i.e. with the connector wires lettered from right to left -- F-E-D-C-B-A -- the tach input is wire E.)