What wire are you grounding? The wire from the gauge to the sender (dsconnecting the wire at the sender and grounding that end of the wire)?
I'm disconnecting the wire from the sender and grounding it on a known good ground.
Heres a video of the problem, it should make it more clear what my problem is. The gauge is screwed in I just didn't bother to put the face on yet.
the needle moves whenever I touch the wire to a good ground.