More Electrical Help ...

Ok. So from that and the check at the ignition switch we know the circuits from the battery through the main splice is connected. And it seems like the battery is charged and your meter is working.

Since this happened. Lets go here for a little bit and come back to the instruments after that.

When the ballast resistor get excessively hot, was the key in Start or Run?
Also, during this attempt to start, when and where did the jumper go from and to?
The jumper was from A-1 to S-5 the key was off. Also, when I looked at your drawing, I noticed the A-1 and R-6A wires appeared to be reversed (from the drawing, it was hard for me to tell which goes to what pole on the ammeter) so I reversed them to look like your drawing...