Another thought is where is a good place to breach the firewall? I'll just make a toggle switch and have it wired direct. Ultimately I'd like to fix this the right way, but not at great expense.

 

Hey all. I just wanted to express my thanks for all your ideas and suggestions. I found the problem. It was a corroded wire -the power to the fuel pump. it had a grain of sand that somehow got in the bundle of wires about halfway between the pump and the engine. Didn't realize that could happen. anyways, I got a LAN tracker. If any of you are familiar with that, its a tool that hooks onto the end on the dead wire and sends a tone through it. then you take a wand that picks up that tone even through the wire's insulation. it beeps. so I got to the place where it was corroded (inside the bundle which was wrapped in the protective corrugated plastic tubing) and it beeped very faintly after that so I tore into it right there and viola!