That was the problem. Took it out and bent the interior part of the labeled cover to make clearance on all the needles. Most likely the new guage was just a little larger than the old one. Put it back together and when I pull the wire from the sender it swings to full and when tough ground it swings to empty. Connected to the sender it shows just over half and that is pretty close.
Btw, I mounted a mirror on the firewall side so I could see everything while reaching under the dash. Wow did that make it easier than trying to get my head and arms under the dash.
