When we bought our '81, it had a malfunctioning odometer (sticky) and gas guage 
(wildly erratic).  Alice and I tried to fix the odo and although we got it 
completely apart and back together successfully we weren't able to figure out 
what needed fixing, so we went to a junkyard and picked up a new speedo/odo unit
and a new gas guage.  The speedo/odo installation went fine, so we now can tell 
when we're getting low on gas, but the replacement gas guage behaves as badly 
(or perhaps as well as) the first.

Symptoms:  Fill the tank and the guage reads full.  Drive a bit and the guage 
dips to 1/2 full, back up to 3/4 and after driving a bit more down to 1/4 and 
sometimes towards empty.

Partial Diagnosis:  Since we replaced the guage and are still having identical 
problems, the guage was not the problem.  Duh!  We also replaced a little 3 
pronged gadget on the back of the clock which the junkyard guy told us was fuel 
guage related.

Questions:  Can anyone narrow this problem down?  Could it be in the ribbon 
cables that connect the instrument pod to the electrical system?  Is it 
electrical or mechanical?  Will removal of the gas tank be necessary in order to
repair this?  Should I bother, now that I have a working odo?  What kind of 
highway/city mileage should I expect?

  

    ___________________________
   /_________/__|______________\        Larry R. MacPhee  
  /=========/|""||"""""||""""|# \       lmacphe@cello.gina.calstate.edu
 /         //|__||_____||____|## \      lmacphee@vmsa.oac.uci.edu
/_________//    |                |      '81 Westfalia
|         ||   _|  ***           |
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|  ==W==  ||_// \          / \   |   _-( )              
\=========/_/| ) |--------| ) |==]  _-{_}_)        \_  | o
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