Also, are you certain what you see is the 1/2 tank mark on the gauge?  I
used to read my gauge wrong on my 84 because it 'looked like' the mark was
1/2 tank, but in truth it was the "3/4 full" mark..
.Hard to explain but the engineers made the gauge markings kinda illogical.
When someone explained it to me, then it made some sense why my gauge went
quickly about half way across the dial, but it meant that I had used only
about 1/4 tank. It's behavior then seemed like many gauges....quick to move
off from totally full and then semi accurate across the rest of the range.
   On my gauge, there is a red zone that marks from 1/4 to E....and the next
mark up is 'skinny' and denotes "1/2 tank"...then there is a big bold fat
mark..."3/4 tank" and the top of the dial....So I was reading that fat mark
as "1/2 tank" because it is bold and it is half way down the sweep of the
needle...but it really means '3/4 tank'...
  If that makes any sense...
  Don Hanson

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Michael Sullivan <sandwichhead@gmail.com>wrote:

> Have you tried rotating the sender? I have read that it can stick due to
> mis-placement. No pun intended.
> Michael in San Antonio
> 91GL Weekender AT 2.1L 'Gringo'
> 73 Beetle
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 2:34 PM, miguel pacheco <mundopacheco@gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > I've searched and cannot find this......on my 88 Westy, the gas gauge
> > drops to 1/2 tank, within 50 miles of travel. It then sits there a
> > long time, waiting for the actual level to catch up, then it operates
> > fine. Recently there was a post regarding a similar malfunction, and
> > this was addressed by changing out an electrical part.......what was
> > this?
> > The gas gauge acted the same way before I replaced the gas tank and
> > sender with new.
> > Thanks............
> > Miguel
> >
> > I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
> >  - Thomas A. Edison
> >
>