Took sender out and grounded it. hooked up a wire from post to the sender wire, moved float, and it appeared to work correctly.
Put sender in bath full of water, float worked.
Cool bubbles came up. Shook float, heard liquid inside. Hmm, looks like a cracked float. I think I got my culprit.
Bummer.
Thanx for all the help. No, that's not sarcasm. This place is great, and all this happened in a few minutes, did not expect an answer that fast. But it was
kinda like bouncing stuff off of friends anyway