First of all I don't have any resistors, mulimeters or any actually useful diagnosis equipment.

Today, I removed my instrument cluster (after removing the neg battery cable, I don't have the radio code, oh well). I took it inside, opened it up, examined all the soder joints and connections for the gauge itself. Everything looks pristine, all the soder looks great, no cracking, no corrosion on the screws or anywhere. The thing looks brand new. I also noted and marked the connectors for the coolant loss mod (I'll get to that later).

Here's where it gets a bit odd. I put the cluster back in, re-attached everything and turned the key, cluster comes to life, fuel needle starts to rise, but I had overlooked one thing. In my haste to re-install the cluster, I let the fuel gauge needle slip past its little stop. It was pegged all the way down on the left. When I turned the car on, it shot up, but was stopped by the..err..stop. So I think "egads! I managed to fix it!!" I happily remove the cluster and temperature unit and use a bit of wire to help the needle over the stop. Turn the key again and BAM!

Nothing Happens!! WTF??!!?

I turn the key on and off several times, each time I notice that the needle does in fact move a bit, but still fails to tell me that ANY fuel is in the tank.

What I want to know is if the gauge "rising" to the "empty" mark means anything?

I already tried the "whack around with a mallet" test at the sender unit - it does absolutely nothing at the gauge when I whack. As far as these tests have told me, the sender and gauge are simply not attached. But the gauge is clearly getting power... The only things I have not done yet are removing the sender unit or trying to trace the wires from the unit to the cluster. And of course splicing in resistors...

Any clues in what I've said so far?


--
Volvo #6: all wagons.... 1972 145S, 1976 245 DL, 1983 245 GL, 1986 740 GLE, 1990 740 GL, now a 1995 940...What's Next?