Finally had a day off from work, and I wired in a simple 194 bulb socket to the exciter on the alternator and then to the electric choke wire since that's always on whenever there's ignition power. Same wire I used to get power to the tachometer. For now it's just a temporary set up, I'm going to do something a little less fuddy once I get the time. But for now, that worked, and the alternator is charging!
But now we're back to the overheating issue, but I'm not as worried about it this time because I'm fairly confident it's due to the vacuum advance not being tuned yet. I traveled less than 5 miles and the temp gradually climbed to 240 and that's when I pulled over and set it in a parking lot to cool down because I was afraid it would continue going up. I was going to take it to get the alignment done, so that didn't happen this time. I didn't adjust the vacuum advance yet, because the car was still hot when I got it home, about 245 or so. Right now it's at bottomed out at it's factory position, which gives it about 2-5 degrees of vacuum advance meaning that it's likely running retarded which means it runs hot. It did not however, detonate or ping at all, and it did not run on at all once I cut power to the ignition.
I figure by this chart, I should start off with 6 turns clockwise and see where I stand. If I continue running hot, I'll give it one turn each time until it starts behaving a little better.
Some good news however: The TV cable seems to be adjusted well... it felt like it was shifting at the right times, and the shifts were nice and smooth. Other than the anxiety from the overheating, the car was fun to drive, and that's the most important thing of all!
