continuity tested the breaker. oh crap. it's not the breaker. it looks as though it's been dropped and the (I think) choke (small transformer) broke loose and pulled the red wire off the circuit board, everything else looks fine. I'm gonna put the wire back on and light er up tomorrow(it's minus 10 celsius, i dunno, 5 ferenheit?, it's been in my truck for a few hours and started sweating when I brought it in. I'll give it the night to dry out) and test the electrical path with a meter. glued the choke back into place. so we'll see.
