After weeks of messing with this I ended up buying a new Auto Meter fuel gauge and Auto Meter fuel bridge to try out (pic). Couldn't get the fuel bridge to work as it should so I hooked the gauge up directly to my sender. The gauge now reads the sender but it reads backwards, full when empty and empty when full. At least now I know when it's empty or full just have to remember it's backwards. I can live with that.
Not sure how that's wired but typically a DC circuit will indicate backwards if the polarity is reversed. So you might want to double check the wiring
