I had the motor out, it's now back and started right up. Howewer a wire to the altenator started to melt on me while running. It is a white/yellow wire, I'm assuming to the starter switch. It is connected to the + on the altenator along with the solid yellow wire that goes to the starter solenoid. Problem seemed to stop as soon as I shut the engine down. One thing I checked is continuity across the positive and negative terminals on the coil and there is continuity there - I didn't expect that - is that right? Another thing I noticed is this ignition wire was a little funny. It seemed like maybe it was too long, so it was run up along the top of the firewall about 8" and then double backed. At the point it double backed, there was a bare area about 1" long and someone had attempted to cover this with an insulator. (maybe this happened before and was repaired?) The worst of the problem seemed like it might of started here and then worked it's way along back toward the ignition. I don't think this was a problem before I started on the car, but I've only owned it about a month.

Ok, I pulled the bad area of the wire away from the bundle, started it back up and now it seems fine. Funny thing is I can't see where this wire shorted with anything. Some of the adjacent wires did burn a bit but I don't see anything exposed. I'll clean it up a bit and keep an eye on it.