A month or so ago, it was working fine. I noticed this a couple weeks ago. I'm assuming if the float was filling with gasoline that it would be buried on the "E' side instead of the "F" side. Any good options. I won't drop the tank until I get the car painted in the spring!
OLE442

 

The fuel gauge ground circuit has an open connection. Try grounding the wire back by the tank, the gauge should go to E. If it does everything from the point you grounded it to the gauge is good. That would point toward a bad ground connection at the tank/sending unit.

 

Loose connection somewhere between the gauge and the sending unit in the tank. Mine does that periodically, I reach under the bumper and wiggle the sending unit wire and all is well for a while.

You can troubleshoot by disconnecting the sending unit wire in the trunk near where it goes through the grommet and ground the gauge end. If the needle goes to E, the issue is towards the sending unit. If nothing happens, the issue is towards the gauge.

 

While putting the rear bumper back on my car and connecting the wiring to the taillights I noticed one wire coming from the area of the fuel sending unit on top of the tank to a screw located on the lower trunk latch. It looked a bit corroded so I took it apart and sanded/cleaned to contact surfaces and put it back on! Well, SHAAZAM, the gas gauge now works!! One less item to deal with now.

OLE442

 

Bad grounds are one of the most common pitfalls of automotive electrical work. They don't LOOK bad, but sometimes they fool you. Good job on finding/fixing it.

 

^^^ A coworker taught me decades ago that the stranger the electrical symptom the more likely that it was high resistance or completely open to ground related. His theory has proven true over and over for decades.

 

I'm not an electrical schematics kind of guy! Does anyone know of a diagram that shows where all the grounds are on a 70-72 Cutlass??