Today was a big milestone, the engine runs! Really well I might add. I rigged up a remote starter switch and a jumper wire from the power side of the HEI distributor since all the wiring is stripped out. Checked the oil and poured a bit of gas in the carburetor. Pushed the button and it roared to life almost immediately. After it ran the gas out I did it again and it fired right back up. It was then I noticed a spark jumping from a wire to the intake manifold. Darn rats had chewed the #2 plug wire in half. I changed that out and rigged a lawnmower plastic gas tank to gravity feed the carburetor. Started and ran great even idling a while. Shut it down and found the plug wire to #5 also chewed in half. So, on the first start the engine was running on 6 cylinders. All repaired now. Moving on to other stuff tomorrow morning.
