Ford Repair: gas gauge, ford country squire, full tank

Question
MY 1986 Ford Country Squire station wagon gas gauge stopped working. I don't drive it much but it runs good.It has a V8 engine.Before it stopped working completely, I noticed that the low fuel light would be on sometimes when there was still plenty of gas in the tank.Could it be stuck? How hard is it to fix?

Answer
Generally speaking the problem is with the sending unit in the tank. Dropping the tank is not too terrible, but can be if there is over 1/3 tank of fuel. It would help tremendously if you had a good idea how many miles you get out of a full tank. Run out 80 percent of it, or a little more, but not too much. Remember that the fuel pump is lubricated by the fuel itself, so running out is a catastrophic to the pump as running your engine out of oil, just not as costly.