Picked up a donor set of gauges from an '89 to replace my busted '97 set, but I'm having some issues: I figured, where better to ask?

To connect the gauges, I popped the headlight off to connect the electronics (success there) and screwed the old (97) cables into the new (89) gauges. The backlight and all my idiot lights work fine, so the electrical side of things is peachy; however, the tach needle doesn't respond like it should. The needle doesn't register immediately, lagging far behind the actual rpm status. At most, the needle will register 2-3k rpm, and acts extremely sluggish. If anything, I'd say it sounds like the two aren't connected correctly, like the cable's spinning (almost freely) inside the female tach connection.

Any ideas what I could be missing? Or is it just a bad tachometer? Cable?

Serious frustration on this end: let me know what you think.

sounds like the tacho is sticking....spray some wd-40 light oil into the back side of the tacho
also lube the cable