Good morning everybody, sorry for my delayed reply. I've been hella busy this week. I'll be replying to your posts today.

Thanks again for all the help! Talk to ya soon.

thanks for the information, Qsilver.

As for the electrical issues - I went back to autozone and the man tested the battery and immediately decided it was shot - it had been sitting on the shelf for nearly a year when I bought it so he wasn't surprised. He gave me a new one from this month and we are good to go again.

Given the myriad of things that could go wrong this is by far the best outcome!

Great...thanks for posting back your resolution. And this is a great reminder to always check the "freshness date" when purchasing a new battery. :) I do the this with new battery & new tire purchases.

I am starting to wonder if this is my problem too, although i get laboured starts, being sold a battery that had been sitting on a shelf for too long, i checked the battery markings and one year is crossed off so may well have been sitting for a year, I am gonna go back to the store and ask them to test what? if its already half dead or half flat will they need to charge it up then wait some time to see if it holds charge? not sure what to ask for in this case, i know simply measuring the volts is not enough...the cca is what counts