You don't even want to get me started on positive ground electric circuit troubleshooting. Ugh!

 

I checked the resistance from -ve battery cable to starter and it was 0. Judging by the looks of the ground it appeared good.



Here was the ground to body



This was the ground to the front of the alternator mount<br/>

The ground to alternator didn't look too bad but there was some corrosion and evidence of arching...




evidence of arching



signs of light corrosion

I cleaned up the end of the ground cable, but found it difficult to reach the face of the bracket where the ground had been attached. But right at the top next to the alternator was an obvious place to connect the ground cable. I sanded this back, sprayed with electrical cleaner and bolted it down.

LRD2 fired right up no worries.

Next half hour was spent cutting the handbrake cable down next to the brake drum to release the welded cable. I hacked it just enough to cut thru the sheath and cable but not all the way thru. Replacing it will need to be a next job, but I can see getting her up on a lift will make it a ton easier. Looks like the muffler needs to be removed to get to get the drum off, but more research needed...

As an aside, I am fairly well versed in how electrical circuits work. The ground looked ok, and I was bloody surprised that between the ground cable and the strap from the drivers side firewall to the block didn't provide a good enough ground causing it to fry the parking brake cable. Seems like the strap from the firewall to the block is pretty bloody useless. I couldn't even see where it was attached, making it impossible to check/clean the connection to the block.

Thanks to all for the tips and help in getting this resolved.