'83 SC fuel tank sender unit? help needed

[Flagstaff_911SC]

I need some help/advice on my fuel tank sending unit on my '83 SC. The car sat for a little while (a few months, although I did start it once in a while, out of town allot) and recently I have started driving it again on the weekends and noticed the fuel guage not reading correctly.

The fuel guage will stay on empty for a while (it has about half a tank of fuel) and then jump to where it shoud be and stay there for a few minutes, but then continue the cycle of going back to empty and then half tank reading. Should I try to clean the sending unit or just go ahead and replace it with a new unit and be done?

Thanks,
Glen

[javadog]

Glen,

It sounds like an intermittent electrical connection, the way you describe it. I'd clean the connections at the sender and the gauge and see what happens.

When the sending unit has problems, the usual symptoms are that the gauge always reads the same, or it will read fine down to a certain fuel level and then stick, or it won't work at all. It doesn't typically do what you describe.

JR