calling all brickboarders , what to do to repair broken wire to fuel tank. i was getting on again /off again use of the fuel guage,and when i uncovered the the plate i found the wires were rusted as they pass through a seal going into the tank. there are some tabs left ,can new wire be soldered to these??? or replace the sending unit with a new cable assembly??? thanks in advance

Another reason you need to address the situation is that one of those wires supplies power to the in-tank pump which is also probably not working or only working intermittently. This will put a strain on the main pump as the fuel level gets lower and send it to an early demise.
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'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

thanks ,for the different solutions since the fuel tubes do look rustey the best thing will be replace the sending unit and replace the suction hose in the tank . thanks again

I removed the whole sending unit. Then I cut the wires just above and below the sender top (it's corroded right there where the wires go in, right?) Next, I poked out the plug the wires pass through and spliced new wires from the good section below the plug hole to the good section above it with the spliced wires passing through the hole in the top of the sender. I closed the hole with gasoline proof epoxy. Reinstalled and it has been fine for two years.
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Andy in St. Paul. '89 244 160K mi, '91 745 209K, '91 745 213K

Sounds like a great solution. I never though about epoxy as a seal. Fortunately, when my wagon had this problem, I had a good used sending unit on hand. But this would have been a lot easier because I had to change the early prepump for the later.
Sometime when I have some time to kill I'll repair the original unit as you have outlined. It's still usable.
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'80 DL 2 door, '89 DL Wagon

btw, I covered the lower splices with the same epoxy. I know there can't be an explosion in there, but I couldn't think of anything else that would for sure stand up to gasoline (and alcohol here in MN)and I didn't want it to short out.

also btw. Always replace the hose in the sender while you have it out.
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Andy in St. Paul. '89 244 160K mi, '91 745 209K, '91 745 213K

Usually the fuel lines are also corroded so changing the sending unit is probably the best approach. For safety reasons I think you would have to remove the unit to solder the wires.