POOF and the inevitable...."im an idiot"

[velociraptor]

been trying to figure out my timing issue for a couple of weeks and i think i got it figured out that both the vac advance and the mech advance are not working at all.

so today i set my timing in prep for the new dizzy im dropping in and for giggles i decide to take it out for a spin to see if the mech advance loosened up a bit.

big fat NO! on my way back to the house truck quit, dead, nothing. had to do the walk of shame the 1/2 mile and be towed home by a ...ugh....f*rd.

turn the key and the motor spins but no fire. hook up a timing light....no flashy. i suspect the soon to be lawn dart hei and proceed to start looking at wires.....burned wire to the bat side of the hei. to my disgust and anger the PO left the resistance wire on connected to the hei and the new coil/cap/rotor i installed gave off the test smoke and now im going to be doing a bit of wiring tomorrow as well as a new dizzy and starter.

any tips, pitfalls, small demons i should be watching for? motor is a 75 with factory hei, im assuming the rest of the wires in the truck are original.