68 SS w/ Gauges

Well, after working for a few hours last night on the problem ... this is what I found. When I grounded out the wire, the gauge went to HOT .. so the wire looked good. Tried all kind of things .... then late last night while watching TV it hit me ... when I installed the new sending unit, I wrapped the unit in teflon tape. I would say that the tape is keeping the unit from grounding ..... Anyway, Ill remove the tape this evening and see if it was just a bad sending unit from the begenning.

Well, I have come to the conclusion that it is the gauge that is bad. Even after remiving all teflon .. .the gauge still does not work consistantly. It works VERY intermittantly .... I dont know what else to try. I have tried 3 sending units, re-wired fron the firewall to the sending unit ..... ran a totally seperate wire fron the unit to the gauge ... nothing. I still might have grounding problem, but I dont see how ... battery ground goes directly to passenger side head and there is a ground strap from the drivers side valve cover to the firewall. Anyway, is there a replacement gauge available and if so ... from where?

Is the + voltage wire just a switched 12V+ ? I have not traced this wire .. nor have I ensured that it was giving a good and constant signal. I will try this before I do anything else.