4/7 update
Last night i went to advance auto to rent the vacuum tester. I never acually took it out of the box because the truck wouldn't start, as in, when the key was turned to start everything died as if it shorted out, however, it never did. I got so pissed off at it I returned the kit. Later that night with help from Dad, we managed to get the engine turning over. I was forced to stop the process because there was severe arcing and sparking coming from the negative terminal on the battery.
Goals for today was to go back to advance and get a new terminal clamp and drill a new ground on the frame after inspecting the wire.
Good news: My distributor cap and ignition wires came today! too bad its snowing and the truck is stuck at the end of the driveway.
The guy at advance did tell me a way to check to see if there was a leak at the plenum chamber. When the engine is running spray carb cleaner in the chamber and around the outside of the vacuum hoses. If there is an idle fluxuation then there is a leak somewhere.
Hoping for warm weather again, and would love any/all thoughts on this.
thanks