Peter, remove the sensor and swing it around so that you can take a pot of boiling water out and place it on the fender and drop the guage in it and then look in the cab and see.

The earlier and later are gas (?) filled originally and I think now they use MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) to fill them. Your "CC" would have indeed used an electric guage, GMC part number 1512200.

Take a heater rheostat and hook it up to the wire and then try dialing it up and down and see if you can get the guage to move some. That will isolate the guage portion and let you know if it's the sender or the guage.