My memory is a little vague. The assembly was made of a white plastic like nylon or delrin with a long spiral resistance wire or something similar in function. The float rides up and down along a locating shaft. I think it was the shaft that had dirt on it so the float didn't move easily. If I remember I didn't touch the resistance wire because I didn't want to dsturb its operation. I just cleaned the shaft and float carefully with tissues or q-tips.