XoRoKu

Opened up the cluster to inspect the gauge itself for signs of damage and it looks good. Got curious since that needle doesn't go back to a "neutral" position by itself (it stays in the same position when ignition is off. so I manually moved it to 1/2. Connected it back, turned on the ignition and the needle started moving up! Not sure what's up with that but before that the needle was way down below empty like fully south west. There's always a chance that the needle moved slightly the first time I tried and I didn't notice because of how slowly it moves and how far it was from the markings. I don't know if the current needle position is accurate so I'll fill it up and see where that brings it. I guess I'll try to adjust it manually if it doesn't get to F. Looks like the needle position is relative and not absolute? Thanks all for your help and patience!

Fair enough, I'm out of my depth with chasing electrical issues. I measured the resistance with battery disconnected. and got 25 directly on the fuel pump assembly and 17 on the wires connected to the fuel pump assembly and the same reading from the back of the cluster. I would bring it to someone who specializes in electrical issues but at this point it looks like the issue is at the cluster so not sure what more they could troubleshoot. Anything I can try with the cluster or nothing to do but replace it?

Thanks, I checked from the back of the cluster and no reading there. I undid the connector and plugged in the wires directly to start from where I'm getting a reading: https://imgur.com/a/W8JI6Yr Weirdly enough when I tried to get a reading from the crimps that connect to the fuel pump assembly, I got nothing. Not sure what's my next step as I have admittedly limited knowledge with electricity.

My fuel level sender was shot so I decided to fix it properly with repair kit from FPG. Now I can read resistance and confirm that it changes with movement using the method in the service manual (page EN-258). However, the fuel gauge on the cluster still refuses to move. I need help to figure out next steps to troubleshoot the issue as I was really hoping fixing the sender would do it but it seems that I have multiple issues here. By the way I haven't started the engine since fixing. My assumption (and going from memory from when the gauge worked) is that the needle should move when the key is in the ON position without having to start the engine. Please correct me if that's wrong and I'm just trying to fix an non existent issue because I was too dumb to just start the engine... Thanks for the help!