how do you have the gauge tied into the manifold? dont forget you can use brake line for the vacuum boost referencing if you suspect the rubber line of collapsing.
Right now I have a pipe thread adapter that goes on the intake where the brake booster line would have come from on the last intake runner towards the firewall. That's about as direct to the intake as it gets, and that is tied to the BOV, the FPR, and gauge.
Here's the kicker, I detached the gauge, put a length of the hose on it, and tried both blowing and sucking. My eyes were going to pop out of my head but I could not get the gauge to move. I tried just blowing on the end adapter with the gauge and I could move it... so I feel the old junk from EBAY is not allowing any boost referencing at all, but that would cause the wastegate to just not open I'd assume. Very strange. More research tonight.