Posted by David Sherman on Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 10:04PM :
Just thought I'd pass along what I ended up doing to fix a jumpy gas gage since this is a common problem. After tracing it to the sender, and not the gage or the wiring, I took the sender apart and polished the resistance wire and the slider with crocus cloth, which didn't help a bit. After futzing with it a while I realized that the only contact between the slider and the case was through the pivot of the float rod. Being an old sender, this was pretty thoroughly corroded. I took a few inches of fine stranded wire, wound it into a "pigtail" coil, and soldered it between the back end of the slider and the housing to provide a solid electrical connection regardless of corrosion on the pivot. I wound the wire into a small coil so it would bend more easily, but a loop would probably be good enough. After doing this, the gage is rock-steady in any position.
Now if I can just find a source for the speedometer spring I'll be set.
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