Thanks Dan.. So I took the gas gauge out of the main housing connected up a new sending unit on the bench and found my ground to the gauge housing was suspect... improved that and voila ... the gauge worked.
The whole idea is to keep from paying $400-500 dollars to rebuild this cluster.... so far the gas gauge works, temp gauge works, amp gauge passed the continuity test ... oil pressure seems to work... a bit more testing there... not sure how to do it. Now the speedometer... seems a bit tight, needle has been glued back together so I may send it out for repair. I know there are links here but is anyone willing to share a good experience with a speedo rebuild?