[HO455]

Thanks dieselwrencher! That bumper has bothered me since I slapped it on there. But I had other things to tend to.
First off for today was to find the problem with the fuel guage. Last night I did a search and found a great thread by T-Bone 1964 on fuel guage testing.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=640615

So this morning I crammed myself under the dash and put my multimeter to work. I wasn't able to get the appropriate readings with the guage installed thus removal was necessary. I was able to remove the fuel guage from the guage set without having to remove the whole set. Once it was out I was still only able to get two of the three readings. The other one was about half of what it should be, but it wasn't consistent. It appeared that there might be some corrosion on the posts so I carefully removed the nuts and the resistor. Then separated the face and meter movement from the mounting plate. Now it was more apparent there was a small amount of corrosion. (Photo 1). Using a very small wire brush I cleaned the posts, nuts, washers and the resistor ends. Once everything was nice and shiny I reassembled the guage using Corrosion Block.
If you haven't used it before I recommend it. As a marine electrican working mostly on tugboats I found it to be a product that lives up to its name. It is nonconductive so no worries about creating unintended ground paths or shorts.
Testing after the guage was reassembled showed the readings were now correct and consistent. Then it was back under the dash to install the guage. Two of the screws were marginal on how they felt as I tightened them. So I found a pair of metric sheet metal screws that were perfect for the stripped out originals. Upon completion of the reassembly and testing of all the light bulbs ( I'm not a big fan of the repop circuit boards, at least the one I have, it is so thin the bulbs are pretty finicky). Turning the key on revealed the same problem as before, guage stuck at empty. Following my time tested mantra of "always look at the last thing you screwed with" I went back to the rear of the WMB and...
Now it is time for full disclosure. After being careful about the wires when drilling and fabricating the bunper brackets. I Homer Simpsoned myself and bolted the wire behind the corner of the bracket. (Last photo) It took twenty minutes to unbolt the bracket, pry it off the wire, cut the smashed section out, and solder it back together. Now the guage works! I don't know if the corrosion was a problem, but it I feel the guage should be more accurate now.