Well guys, I wish I'd waited for responses but being a ready, fire, aim, kind of guy I started experimenting with different connections last night,ending up with the one that caused smoke. (ground on post). I had some areas of the ignition wire that were melty and wrapped them in electrical tape. Today I put a runtz on, first trying it on the E terminal with the sender on the F and ground to dash but got no gauge response with power on and cranking battery. I assumed the battery was low and charged it with my other car. No change so I switched the runtz to the F terminal, grounded to the bottom of dash, and the sender wire on the E terminal. Unfortunately the engine still just cranks but won't turn over and the gauge does not respond, fortunately there is no more melting. At least I haven't put in the new sending unit yet. Should have left well enough alone but I'm not that smart, so tell me, how screwed am I? I cant figure out why it won't turn over, power runs from a fuse box and they are intact. As always, thanks for the help.
