Well here's the update.. SHE RUNS!

Well, she did for a solid 20 seconds, and was smooth as silk, and not at all as loud as I would have expected.

I went out and just moved the battery so I could vice grip clamp the braided ground right to a freshly sanded spot on the bell housing.

I hit the stomp switch with my hand, and she cranked over like a banchee!

So then I turn on the fuel line, dump a little gas in the carb, and hit the foot switch.. she's caughing and sounding like she wants to start.. I fiddle with the choke a bit while shes cranking and she takes off.. long enough to burn the gas out of the carb.

So I figure what I gotta do is crank on her a bit with some gas in the carb to get the fuel back up to the carb, so in short 5 to 10 second bursts I crank on her.. and crank on her.. and other than burnin' up what little gas I put in the carb, no signs of life.

I pop the fuel line off the carb, and check the filter.. filter seems ok, so with the fuel line off I crank on her again for about 5 minutes (in short 5 second bursts, of course) and no gas spits out.

Well next I take the line from the fuel pump off, blow it out.. it's clear.. so next I take the fuel line off from the tank to the pump.. she's clear.

I connect the fuel line back to the tank, lean in the engine compartment and give her a suck.. get a mouthful of gas, so I know the line from the tank to the pump is ok.

Well so then I think maybe the pump needs to be primed? I dunno.. but its worth a shot.

I put the lines back on the fuel pump, then pour gas down the line going to the pump from the carb, then get in the truck and hit the switch.. after a second or two, I see gas squirting out the fuel line.

So I pop the fuel line back on the carb, dump a cap full of gas in the carb, hop in the truck and hit the switch and after a few slow cranks, she popped right over and ran.

Now the motor had a slight clank like there wasn't any oil in the top of the engine.. so I decided I probably outta shut it off, put some oil in the top of the motor, then try again.

Well wouldn't ya know it.. now i'm back to the slow "rurr rurr rurr".. I guess all that cranking on it has killed the battery.. and I may or may not have a bad fuel pump.

But at least I know with a fresh battery and some fuel dumped in the line she'll fire and idle!

I guess i'm going to have to buy a 6V battery charger.

an idea is only stupid if you think about it rationally.