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Courtesy of Tony Sims
This is a recap of fixing the sender on my '75. The sender is easy to remove and do some fixin' on. After you remove the access cover in the trunk and remove the suction and return lines, the sender will be released from the tank by turning it about 30 degrees CCW. You have to finagle the thing out of the hole; remember there's a rectangular plastic "shoe" on the bottom that sticks out to one side so you have to tilt the sender once it's almost out of the tank to get that to slide out the hole. Also there's a drain hole at the bottom, so to avoid spilling gas, pull the ender up until you see the drain, then let it empty before you take it out any further.
Be gentle with the shoe, because it has a fairly delicate mesh on the bottom that is easy to poke a finger through. This is the first line of defense for your fuel pump; if the main filter is installed properly between the tank and the pump it's a little redundant, but it will keep the big chunks in the tank and out of your fuel line.
With the sender out, you'll find a small nut on the bottom of the shoe. Remove this carefully. If it's corroded, do a little gentle work with a pick or small screwdriver to scrape away the corrosion, and hit it with some PB Blaster or other lubricant. You don't want to snap off the little stud, it's possible to do a fix but preferable to not... I was able to spin it off with needle-nose pliers, as I didn't feel like digging for a socket that small (it's about 4mm).
With the nut off, gently work the shoe off the bottom of the aluminum shell of the sender. Take look inside; you'll see the brass suction and return tubes and the fragile little float and wire arrangement. Now gently work the shell off the upper mount plate. It has a bit of a crimp at the top, not enough to hold it on but enough to make you pull, slip and break one of those aforementioned fragile wires.
Now you can see the float. There is a small guide rod running through the float, and 3 thin wires. Two are close to the float and tracked by small contacts; the third runs slightly farther out. If all three of these are intact, do your utmost to keep them that way. If you find that corrosion on the wires or the guide rod is causing the float to bind, you'll need to devise a way to remove it that won't break the wires. I'd suggest using a little toothpaste and pinch the wire between your fingertips to gently polish off the rust.
What was causing the binding in my sender was that the shoe had been slightly twisted in relation to the top plate, causing the suction and return tubes to bind on the float at the bottom of its travel range. The guide rod for the float was also slightly bent, exacerbating the binding. I gently straightened the guide rod, and gently repositioned the tubes. This allowed the float to run through its full range with no binding.
Reassembly was the reverse, with care taken to be sure the shoe was correctly aligned. There's a tab on the shoe and a slot in the cover to assure this, so you need to study the orientation of the shoe and the tubes before you seat the cover to the top plate.
Now my fuel gauge needle is steady and the warning lamp comes on just as the needle hits the red zone.
Tony
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