That was a good suggestion, eric ... I got to thinking on this one and decided to go do some troubleshooting. Checking between the positive cable and the Battery connection on the alternator, I found 13.1V ... (aka not good)
Checking further, I had 13.1 V to ground at the starter, but nothing at the alternator. Nothing at the fusible links. I DID find that I had 0 Ohms to ground at the fusible links
I disconnected the positive battery cable and started playing with the the wire coming up from the starter. I found that as I pulled it or pushed it through the stuffing tube, the ground resistance would change, and I could also change the resistance to the battery wire. Culprit found.
I clipped the wire from the starter and pulled it up through the stuffing tube. What I found was interesting, surprising, and made perfect sense.
The wire was completely broken at the lower end of the stuffing tube. Here's what I think was happening that explains my circumstances perfectly ... I had mentioned that my radio cut out whenever I would make a left-hand turn, or a sharp left hand corner, but not just a curve to the left. I had no symptoms on a right-hand turn.
On a left-hand turn, the body roll of the car was enough to stretch the wire going through the stuffing tube. Over time, the lower end of the stuffing tube cut the insulation of the wire, and eventually broke through. Each subsequent contact caused a brief arc which would cut some of the conductor strands (and the arc caused my radio to cut out momentarily). When I went around the last left-hand turn, the body rolled enough that the wire had a significant arc and completely cut through ... cutting off all of the electrical system and poof, the car died ...
It's up and running again. I replaced the wire between the battery and the fusible link.
