Fuel gauge is stuck below empty

i found a schematic only for the fuel pump on Autozone's website, but i am still looking for the fuel sending unit schematic. because what i want to do is take the five pin connector off of the fuel pump/sending unit assembly and put a resistor between the signal wire and ground to see if the gauge moves to verify the sending unit is bad.

see pictures you test gauge and sender with these.

i pulled connector from gas tank and with key on i read 11.49 volts at terminal one on wiring harness and i read 6.59 volts on terminal 2 on the wiring harness. none of the other pins have power at all. i put a test light on terminal 1 with key on and it lights up bright hence the 11.49 volts. when i put the test light on the #2 terminal it lights up very dim and if i leave it on i can see that the fuel gauge starts to move upward on the instrument panel slowly. i tried to put a resistor between terminals 1 and 2 with key on and nothing happened. if i see the gauge move with a test light on terminal 2 them maybe the gauge is good? i do have some movement of the gauge. im just trying to sort things out before i take the sending unit assy out of the tank. i am also troubleshooting the pump with another 2carpros question.

Nine times out of ten it is the sender in these situations.

Please let us know what happens so it will help others

Best, Ken

if you put it on #2 and gauge moves it's the sender

sorry Ive taken so long to reply . I have removed the whole pump and sending unit assembly. the float was really stuck and lots of gunk and rust and corrosion all over the surfaces of the sender and pump etc. basically the whole thing. i put my meter across pins 1 and 2 and at any position of the float the meter reads open. No ohm reading at all. sender has to be bad with no ohms reading, it reads OL or open on my fluke meter

here are three pictures of the sender unit. Like I said no resistance at pins 1 and 2. it was open regardless of float position.

with the condition of the pump/sender etc you better get a new tank along with the complete unit pump/sender etc. what you have cannot even be cleaned out.

Based on what you see ,I know the car sat for awhile. What do you think the reason why so rusty etc in there? Is old gas a problem in there? Your thoughts?

old gas for sure and hard telling what else someone may have thrown down there. also water has done a ton of damage from sitting.

I am going to do my best and I'm not going to drop the tank because I bought this car at an abandoned auction and it has 88,000 miles and body is not great but I want to make it run and possibly a good point A to point B work car so I'm thinking buy a cheap fuel pump and after siphoning the gas out put fresh gas and run some gallons through the engine and after awhile change the whole sender and pump assembly and try it out

from the pictures I see the least you should do is drop tank and get boiled out otherwise I think you'll have a bunch of problems