Tim, thanks for that pic. My gauge still has most of that red tag, same as what you show. I see that you have the small black wire with the resistor fastened to ground. Mine was on the terminal beside the tagged terminal. I guess that caused the short, causing me to drive around all year on E.
That illustration does not show the reducer fastened to the ground. It is in-line with the power cable on the power-in side of the gauge.
You fried your gauge by attaching the power/reducer on the sender side of the gauge. The ground is provided at the gas tank sender.
