the battery is definitely healthy. as of last night, it can easily power my offroad lights at 100 watts apiece.

i checked the ground strap last night, as well. securely fastened to the engine, firewall, and the extra point on the frame that i added when i installed the engine.

as my original post said, i've been hunting for the damn fuse box feed, and it turned out not to be the one i thought.

starter is fine. i tested it with jumper cables to the battery, sunday.

i keep the battery cable connections clean, so they're fine. even with the flashlight, i couldn't see what i was doing when i was trying to check the positive battery cable. i plan to grab a new droplight tonight, after work, and search for breaks or insulation tears.

it's actually easier to mess with this junk when you build it yourself. you remember where you ran everything, not where some bonehead po or a company put it. and the po of this truck was a major bonehead.

thanks guys.