update: the girl has fixed herself. Which leads me to believe it must be/have been a bad ground. I've got to look around and clean up some contacts I guess.
on another note, my gas gauge has started functioning again. when I got her the tank was empty and had some water in it and i think the sensor had rusted. I guess i've filled up the tank enough to slosh around the rust and get the float working again. it's getting more and more accurate as I drive it around. crazy.
as always, thanks for all the help and advise.