gotta love bad news with good news.
I hooked up a ground to the fuel guage and nothing happened, unfortunately it was the opposite effect with the temp gauge.
So knowing the VR supplies both the fuel and temp gauge I know it's not the problem. So before I go ripping out the gauges again to send them off I was thinking of taking a known good voltage limiter wiring setup and try that out.
The one I have checks out on a continuity tester and should be a quick swap.