Yeah, I know, but I was trying to find out if it being hot would lead me to what was shorting. Hard to explain since I have no idea what I'm doing, but wait.....
It's fixed!! I replaced the HOT. Not sure why that fixed it. The new and old hot gave the same reading. I just did it on a whim.
WOW, I have 2 working 7000's. I don't know what to do with myself.
It's uncommon (thank god), but it does happen. The old one was probably dying under load. On a handful of occasions, I've had transistors test good with a meter.....but in actuality, be bad.
Anything is possible with my skills (or lack there of). I did use the same mica insulator. My only "good" guess is that my last soldering job just wasn't up to par (OZ gave me a few tips)
Time will tell...If it works for more than 48 hours, then I've beat my own record on this chassis. So far so good.