My '94 945 has been afflicted for some time with the erratic fuel level reading at the gauge: accurate when full and tracks well to 1/2 tank, then either freezes or drops quickly to E.

Following the FAQ I pulled the pump/sender unit and opened up the sender float "tube" and found the little metal contacts were heavily oxidized (or something) and not making good contact on the wire-wrapped rods. Cleaned those up and bent the contacts to assure contact. Reassembled the tube and connected the wiring harness prior to inserting it all in the tank. Turned on the ignition and repeatedly inverted the assembly by hand so that the float would slide up and down in the tube and I could watch for the gauge to respond. It worked flawlessly! I tested it for about 5 minutes. Then I put the whole thing back in the tank and sealed it all up. Success, right? Not quite.

Upon startup the gauge needle pegs the "F", even though I had about 1/4 of a tank of fuel. I took it for a drive thinking the float was stuck and maybe some bumps would help it drop, but the gauge moved down slightly to 7/8 full, but then went back up.

I put my VOM meter on the connector and the reading is about 0.4 ohms. It acts like the float is stuck up top.

So what do you think I did wrong? I really don't want to open it all up again.... but...
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'94 945t; '94 944t; '05 S80 2.5t; '01 S40t