hi, my fuel gauge is not working, i need to check wiring on tank, its a 87, do i have to drop the tank?

cheers chris.

Worth checking to see if the wire that runs down the inner wing hasn't become disconnected - sometimes if the rear seat has been in and out it can part the connection...

Live without it. Just fill up every 200 miles.

Depending on your driving style, you could be to late when trying to fill it up after 200 miles.

Buy a new piece of proper fuel hose and sender gasket, empty tank and remove from under the car, take out the sender, solder the copper strip back together and mount everything back with new parts, ground strip will probably be rusted beyond usefulness, mount the ground wire with an eyelet under one of the sender screws.

thanks guys, the wire on inner wing is still connected, looks like the tank will have to come out.
anything i need to do/look out for when removing it?

cheers chris.

That won't work if you have a plastic tank!

Empty it first, they're heavy when even half full!

It will work, as long as the eyelet is in contact with the sender unit, clean thoroughly and put a serrated lock washer in between to be sure of contact.

Empty tank, remove filling pipe, undo the rear mounting bolts completely and front bolts just enough to slip the tank out, or completely if necessary.
Fitting is done in reverse order

Maybe a couple of checks first, to be quite sure that it is the sender which is faulty?

1. Disconnect the wire on the inner wing and connect the 'live' lead to an earth on the inner wing and the fuel gauge should then read 'full'.
As a double check, there should be 'about' 8 volts on that wire.
If there's no reading, it's the gauge or there's a fault with the wiring at the front end.
( Don't forget that the ignition should be switched on for this test, btw.)

2. Find the earth wire running from the sender to the chassis, its terminal should be under the head of one of the bolts which attach the tank to the chassis.
Remove bolt, clean up ring connecter and refit.
If no change, it's time to drop the tank.