[ReMorton]

Thanks for the replies, and Mike for the phone call. It seems to be the consensus, that this winter the project will be the grunt work of tracing down all the wires for shorts and or oxidation. I love tinkering with the car, cant drive it in th ewinter anyway, so an excuse to hang out with the beast when I'm home on the weekends.
The battery checks out fine, when the engine is off 12.8 volts, even if it's 8 yrs old, dash gage is working and the VR was replaced, its the one with multiple connections. I did not check the voltage when the engine was running however. Big oops, as a higher voltage would indicate charging, then I might be able to isolate the problem to a short across the 8 yr old battery.
I had a similar situation with a 71 MGB, (Lucas, of course) where I had a slow drain and the starter wouldnt work consistently. I initially looked at the electrical cable to the starter and it looked OK. Several days later after no progress I yanked on the cable and it broke midway. I replaced the cable and problem solved.
I seem to recall that you lost your top end this summer after the run to Oregon and were not able to make it up here for Tim's run to Mt Baker. We had a great time and they werent (too) embarassed to having a black 91 vette bringin up the rear of the pack.. (I could run with them on the corners, but hopeless on the straights.) Hope the engine work came out and you're back up and running this spring.
Bob