Fueling & Injection - replaced fp, lost fuel guage days later

so a buddy of mine and i did the expedient cut the sheet metal method to replace the fuel pump on my '98 ws6. the install went well, nice clean cut, no damage, sender unit popped out nicely, replacement was a cince. put it back down in there and started her up. everything worked just fine, could feel the difference. after about 200 miles later i lost my fuel guage while driving to my parent's house in dallas(i live at fort hood). i pulled over, turned her off. restarted her, guage came back to life. 30 miles later the guage died for good. now no matter how many times i restart her the guage is a no good. floats around with the power off but as soon as you crank her, she's empty. i know i'm good on gas i top her off every day, what could cause this besides a plain old bad sensor? and how would i replace a bad one? thanks for any help you guys have! oh and by the way the car DOES have 63k miles on it, the last 30k have been decently easy on her as they have been the ones i put on her, but the first 30k are unknown. thanks again!
-travis

Best guess? You failed to put the clip retainer back into the fuel sending unit plug securely, and the retainer fell out. Then the plug started wiggling loose until the connector was making intermittent contact. Then, of course, the connector fell completely out and the gauge went AWOL.

Best guess.

SC-

SC - appreciate the thoughts, are you referring to the clip that is attatched to the bottom of the sender unit, over where the return line is attatched? iyll have to pull the sender again when i get a chance, real busy at work right now. first cavalry division never sleeps lol. thanks again man - travis