5kcstq no start, maybe ground?

[illuminaudi at comcast.net]

Last night I replaced all the coolant hoses on my car.  When it came time to refill the coolant, everything came on fine, but within two minutes the interior dome light began dimming and there were no headlights available.

I took the battery in this morning and it was flatline-dead, apparently it had a bad cell, I got a new one, and put it in.  It started immediately, ran for probably 5 min while I waited for the cooolant to start working its way through, then the idle got uneven, then it just it just stopped.

I tried starting it again, it started but it was VERY uneven, and would stop after a bit.  After a few tries this it wouldn't even start again.  I'm thinking this is a ground problem since the battery was drained, but I could be wrong.

It "feels" lean, but there aren't any other things to suggest that.  The intake hoses seem fine, and clamps are tight.  The cheap-ass-dryer-hose-looking-thing (to use the Latin) that goes over the cylinder head got a little split in it as we were wrestling that evil little 3" coolant hose on and off.

TIA

M
'86 5kcstq